Valour Guardians 3: Blast To The Past
by typhoonboom08
Summary: When old enemies return to Bellwood, Ben and a few other Guardians find themselves literally reliving his history. what only makes it worse is that with Gwen barely alive, the remaining teammates are all alone in stopping an unstoppable invasion
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The sun shone brightly overhead, gifting those below it with warmth and relief, relieving the irritation of most people in Bellwood. The town's near constant storm clouds that had plagued the city for weeks had finally lifted and everyone in town was taking advantage of it, whether they were playing sports or taking their work to peaceful fields.

After all the rain, everyone was looking for ways to enjoy the sun and fresh air and Benjamin Tennyson was no exception.

"Come on, surely you guys can do better than that!" He shouted happily, twisting around Kevin with ease before kicking the soccer ball towards the goal. His smirk disappeared and turned into a mock groan as a flash of blonde hair intercepted the ball's path before it was kicked back to the other side of the clearing. "I guess you really can then."

"Did you forget I spent a week at the Xiaolin temple?" Roxas asked cockily, a smirk of his own. "Rai's from Brazil. This is by far his favourite thing to do."

Shaking his head dramatically, he quickly spun around and headed back, hoping to get back near the goals before Danny took a shot. He needn't have worried however, as Kim's quick movements caught the flying ball with ease.

"Oh man, you would get the cheerleader in the goals." Danny sighed as Ben caught up to him. "I'll never get a shot in."

"That's the point." Kim called as she tossed the ball to Gwen. The fellow red head also proved more than Danny or Kevin could handle and quickly slid around both of them. Grinning mischievously as she approached the other team's goal, her finger glowed as she muttered a coupled of words under her breath and kicked the ball.

Roxas' eyes widened as the ball sped his way like a rocket. Though the others had missed it, he'd felt the presence of magic and as he had no way of stopping the ball without risking injury, he had no choice but to dive out of the way, only just escaping a serious blow to the head as the ball made it through the goal.

"And that's another point for us." Gwen cheered, Ben and Kim shouting woohoo behind her.

"Well you can get the ball, Miss magic." Roxas stated, crossing his arms and trying to look demanding, but faltering as everyone turned his way, suddenly looking self conscious, his arms tightening around his bare chest. "After all, you did it and you cheated. I remember us agreeing to no powers as Kim has none and mine would blow up the ball."

"But you guys are on opposite teams so it wouldn't matter anyway." Gwen said smugly as she wave her suddenly glowing hand. A few seconds later, the ball shot back out from where it landed, that being the lake and right into her waiting palm. "Now I believe your team starts off this time." She added, casually passing it to Danny.

"Guys, put that ball away. The food's ready." Max Tennyson called, waving a spatula.

"Sweet, I'm hungry." Danny cheered, taking off like a bullet towards the barbeque.

"Should we warn them about your Gramps' choices in food?" Kevin asked lowly, hanging back with Ben and Gwen as the others joined Danny.

"Nah, tell them after they've eaten it. In all honesty, I don't think Roxas will even care." Gwen answered, shaking her head amusedly.

"Especially if he's more worried about whether or not his shirt's dry yet." Ben added with a chuckle as Roxas stared forlornly at his dripping shirt.

Spending the day at the lake, everyone was only clad in their bathing suits, except for Max. However, when they got to Max's secret place, it proved to be still too cold for swimming. That didn't stop Kevin from pushing Roxas into the lake however, and unlike his board shorts, the shirt refused to dry, forcing the freezing boy to take it off. Had it been Ben or Kevin in that position it wouldn't be a problem, they were walking around shirtless to begin with, but like Danny, he proved to be very shy about his body and had gone to check on his shirt every ten minutes. Too bad it simply refused to dry.

"I don't know why he's so shy. He looks fine." Gwen commented with a shrug, not noticing the suddenly jealous look crossing Kevin's face.

"Let's just leave him be and see if there's anything I can stomach." Kevin muttered picking up the pace. Confused by the sudden attitude, Gwen turned questioningly to Ben, but her cousin could only shrug.

"This is... different." Kim commented, looking strangely at the food before her. Purple patties were definitely something she hadn't seen before. _Nor ever want to see again._

"These are squid burgers. Dig in, they taste great." Max said proudly, throwing a patty in a bun, adding mayo and lettuce and taking a bite with a groan of pleasure.

"Do you think he'll be offended if I pass?" Danny whispered to Kim, looking a little green.

"Don't know. I could really used a Bueno Nacho right now." Kim replied, just as softly.

Roxas however, as Gwen predicted, didn't seem to mind at all. Giving up on his shirt, he walked to the barbeque, made himself a burger and chowed down. The others stared on in amazement as he finished his burger even faster than Max did, licking his lips as he finished.

Feeling someone staring at him, he turned his attention back to the others, another self conscious look replacing the happy one he'd worn the whole time he ate. "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"You just ate a squid burger!" Ben stated incredulously, a bit louder than he'd intended to. "You didn't even give it a second glance. And you liked it."

"Yeah... why is that surprising?" Roxas asked slowly and confusedly. "It's food, why wouldn't I eat it? Is there something wrong with it?"

"No, there's nothing wrong with it, don't worry Roxas." Gwen replied, smiling reassuringly. "It's just a weird food to us. Something that most people would be too grossed out to touch around here. Grampa tends to enjoy the weirdest foods from around the world."

"Oh, well I've had much weirder looking food in different worlds. Their appearance don't stop them from tasting good." Roxas responded almost defensively before turning thoughtful, as if he was trying to solve a complex puzzle. "Besides... I think I've had squid before. I remember that my other originates from an island and seafood was the most frequently eaten food and the food group with the most variety."

"Really? A place that loves all the different types of sea food? You'll have to take me there one day." Max said happily, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "There are a number of old fashioned recipes I used to love. Too bad I can't find them anymore. Either the recipes weren't attainable, or the fish went extinct."

"Sure. Just as soon as I get interdimensional portals down." Roxas replied happily, forgetting the looks he'd gotten before.

"It's so nice to find someone who shares my taste in good food."

"Let's just let them be." Danny suggested as Max and Roxas made more burgers for themselves. "If we're lucky, they'll eat all of the burgers and won't notice we didn't touch any."

"It could happen. They're too busy talking about food that I wouldn't touch if my life depended on it to notice what we do anyway." Kevin agreed before heading into the mobile home, muttering about good, edible food.

...

Across the lake, hidden within the trees, a dark smirk grew beneath a pair of red eyes. The boy's piercing gaze had been focused on the group for hours, watching how they moved and aced around each other. With so many new faces, he had to make sure that they possessed nothing that could ruin his plan.

By the time that he had busted out of jail and reclaimed his power, some of the planet's heroes had allied with Tennyson and he had no experience with them or their powers. The information he'd managed to pull up from Earth's databases was useful, but if he wanted to ensure that the plan worked perfectly, he needed to gather a lot more information on their skill levels and reaction times. So, like any great mind, he observed from afar as they moved and reacted to each other and their messing around gave him a distinct idea on each of them.

"Them being here makes this part of the plan harder, but in the long run, but it'll make the rest two phases so much simpler." He muttered to himself as he pushed himself to his feet, his hands clutching a very advanced looking alien gun. "In mere moments, we'll be rid of Tennyson, his sidekicks, his legendary grandfather and three other potential pains in the neck."

...

"Pizzas with maggot toppings?" Danny asked, gagging at the thought as Ben and Gwen laughed. "You could have warned us to bring our own food. Does your grandfather ever eat normal food?"

"Only when we drag him to a restaurant." Gwen answered, turning to look at the man in question affectionately. "And even then, he asks if they have any of his favourites."

Kim and Danny shivered at that while Ben just laughed. Watching the two of reminded him of the old days. That was exactly how he and Gwen had reacted most nights when Max put food on the table.

_Man were those simpler times_.He thought fondly, turning his gaze to the Rust Bucket. _It's hard to believe that we're the same people who existed back then. Who would have thought we'd turn out the way we did?_

Turning back to the lake, still thinking about the past, he completely missed flash of red and white and wasn't aware of any danger until a bright flash reached the corner of his eye.

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" He screamed, throwing himself onto the grass. Not bothering to question him, the others quickly followed suit as a beam of blue and white energy whizzed just over their heads and struck the barbeque, causing it to disintegrate instantly.

"What the heck was that?" Kim cried, jumping back to her feet. Glaring, she turned to the direction it came from, only to gasp, gobsmacked. There, about thirty feet away, was a white haired, red eyed version of Ben Tennyson, Omnitrix and all. "Ben, you never mentioned having a twin."

"That's because I didn't until about a year ago." Ben growled, glaring heatedly at his miscoloured match. "How did you get out of prison Albedo?"

"That's on a need to know basis." Albedo retorted, aiming his gun again. "And as you're about to die, you don't need to know."

"Watched it. That's a molecular disperser and a level 6 version to boot." Kevin cried, staring fearfully at the gun. "That thing will rip your molecules apart."

Tensing, Danny transformed at that as Roxas summoned his Keyblades, holding them defensively. Seeing little that she could do at that moment, Kim leapt behind the boys while Gwen joined Ben, between the others and Albedo.

"Thanks for gathering in one place." Albedo snarled and fired again, before any of them could so much as blink.

Relying solely on instinct, Gwen pushed Ben back into the others and thrust hers hands out. Screaming a spell, she shot her own darker blue beam at his, the energy of both colliding. However, instead of the beams fighting each other, as both battling entities expected, the energy gathered into a ball between their beams that quickly grew.

"What it this?" Albedo cried, looking on in terror as the ball grew and released wild streams of energy. Scared as to what would happen if it approached him, he increased the power of his weapons to its maximum. However, that only made the chaotic energy ball growl quicker, as did the wild streams.

"Gwen, everyone, get out of there." Max screamed, his eyes wide in panic as the energy became more and more dangerous. Ignoring his own safety, he charged towards Gwen, Kevin not far behind him.

Unfortunately, it was at that moment that two enormous tentacle like streams of energy shot from and around the sphere. Albedo was struck by one and sent flying painfully into the lake. At the same time, the other lashed at Gwen and moved on to hit Max and Kevin. Feeling like a thousand volts of electricity were surging through their veins, they too were blasted off into the air and smashed into trees. The three of lay limp where they fell.

"Gwe- ARGH!" Ben screamed. As he tried to get to his family, the ball, no longer being fed, imploded, covering a huge area in an extremely bright, blue light, encompassing every one of the remaining, standing teens. Their screams reverberated through the air as the light grew brighter and bright. A moment later the light faded away and the screams disappeared. When the light had completely disappeared, it was to reveal an almost empty field, containing only a damaged vehicle and an injured old man, teenage boy and teenage girl.

...

Gasping painfully, Albedo shakily crawled out of the lake. Bruises covered his body and his head was pounding. When finally made it out of the water, all he could do was fall down.

"That was definitely not in the plan." He groaned as he slowly managed to raise his hand holding his disrupter, only to find nothing but the handle remaining. "That's not good, they'll be able to..." Looking up, his eyes widened with pained glee at the sight before him. Four heroes gone and three more barely alive, all with their bodies twisting in painful, unnatural places. "I must have managed to destroy the others. Even if it were to search for me, they wouldn't leave their friends like this. And now, my injuries... and there's, I can make this even less conspicuous." Cackling painfully to himself, he pulled another device from his pocket and pressed the button. In a flash of light, his colour scheme changed so he looked exactly like Ben. Putting it back away, he belly crawled through the grass, slowly making it to a table by the van where one of the Guardians' communicators sat in plain sight. Still unable to stand when he reached the table, he reached up with his hand, crying out in pain the whole time and grabbed it. Opening it, he found it had a button to used to immediately contact the Satellite. Pressing it, he only had to wait a moment before a Japanese boy with really messy black air appeared on the screen.

"Valour's Light, what's going... Ben, what happened?" Gohan gasped, going from calm to panicked in an instant.

"Blasted by someone... Danny knew. Didn't get time to find out who. I'm hurt, Gwen, Kevin and Grampa are in serious... condition and the others... are gone." Albedo managed between groans, using his pain to aid in his act. Having the remaining Guardians believe he was Ben was critical to the plan.

"Hold on. Namine's already on her way." Gohan stated as a flash of white light flared to existence in the background. Nodding, Albedo cancelled the connection and waited.

_Phase one complete and better than expected. Phase two going as planned. Ha ha ha, soon the Valour Guardians will be no more and their planet will share their fate._


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **Hey old and new readers. I probably should have said this in the last chapter, but I forgot so: I'm back! Anyway, I have a question for you readers. I've been intending to eventually get some pairings made more noticable or develop later in the series, but I was curious as to what other people's opinions on the subject were. Should I just keep the characters with the patners from their own universes, (eg. Roxas/Namine, Gwen/Kevin, Gohan/Videl) or mix them within the group (eg. Gwen/Roxas, Gohan/Namine). Kim's staying with Ron, that one won't change, but if anyone has a pairing idea involving any of the others, put it in a review and I'll see what I can do with it. Thanks.

* * *

Chapter 2

Drowsy, green eyes slowly opened as the brunette came back to consciousness, his sleep interrupted by the constant chatter of people and birds and the louder screeches of car wheels and horns. As he slowly shrugged off the drowsiness, the first thing he noticed was the feeling of cold cement beneath his bare chest.

_That's odd. We were at the lake and there isn't anything man made for miles... and there definitely wasn't any cars or crowds!_ His mind snapping into full alert, he jump up to his feet and stared in shock and confusion at the sight before him.

Gone were the lush trees and sparkling water. The few trees and bushes around the area were surrounded by concrete jungles. Cars flooded the streets, frequently blowing their horns at the cars before them and the footpaths were just as crowded with people of all ages.

"Well, at least we'll blend in with the crowd." He mused, notice a number of them in swim suits with towels over their shoulders. The thought immediately reminded him of the others and he whipped around to find Danny, Roxas and Kim still unconscious and scattered around what appeared to be a skate park in which they'd somehow landed in. Worried that they were hurt, he ignored his surroundings completely and rushed to Kim's side.

"Guys, come on wake up. Kim... Kim, open your eyes." He called, gently shaking her. His actions seemed to have the desired effect, causing relief to flood his system as stirred and opened her eyes groggily. His relief only grew as a moment later, though his eyes were still closed, began stretching. Despite not knowing what exactly happened or where they were, Ben still couldn't help chuckling as Roxas' eyes bolted open and he jumped up into a sitting position, his arms crossing over his chest.

"Ben? What's going on? Wait, forget that, where are we?" Kim cried as reality crashed down on her, her memories of the event coming right back.

"I'm not sure." Ben sighed, shaking his head as Roxas moved over to Danny, shaking him awake. "I would have thought that blast would have destroyed us. Did it somehow teleport us somewhere? Or did someone move us after we were hit?"

"This isn't exactly where captors have dragged me before." Danny groaned as Roxas helped him into a sitting position. "I'm voting for the blast doing it."

"So it shot us to God alone knows where and even I don't have so much as a bruise to show for it?" Kim asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow. "How would that even be possible?"

"Have you ever heard the saying 'mixing magic and technology can has unpredictable and disastrous results'?" Roxas responded, shaking his head. "I don't know what spell Gwen used, but mixing magic with a molecular disrupter beam sounds like some that really should be avoided if you ask me. Though it has definitely saved our lives. I'd say instead of throwing all of our molecules to the winds, it molecularly transported us somewhere."

"Well, then can you create a portal and take us back to the lake? We need to check Gwen, Grampa and Kevin." Ben asked hastily, his worry clearly evident on his face. Roxas' looked back sadly as he shook his head.

"If I'm right about how we got here, there's no telling where here is. A different city, country... or maybe an entirely different dimension." He sighed. "Without knowing where we are, the portal may just take us to the middle of deep space or into a volcano for I know. And we just so happen to be in a different dimension, any portal I created to take us home has a one in a million chance of getting us there. I can open interdimensional portals, but I can't direct what dimension they open to. We could end up anywhere in any dimension."

"So without an indestructible space ship, we shouldn't try that." Danny stated, his shoulders sagging.

"Sorry Ben." Roxas said sadly, looking down at the ground.

"It's ok. Let's just find out where we are and go from there." Ben replied understandably. It wasn't like he could ever blame the blond for their situation. He didn't cause it and if their crossing paths with the Freight Knight was anything to go on, Roxas, like Ben, didn't even know of his full power, let alone how to master everything he was capable of.

Nodding in agreement, the others got to their feet and followed the shape shifter towards the street.

"Umm..." Roxas started embarrassedly, blushing and grabbing his arms again as he noticed some of the teenage girls checking him out. "While we're at it, does anyone have some money I can borrow? I REALLY want a shirt on now."

...

Gohan and 'Ben' watched from the door as Namine bent over Gwen, her white, glowing hands placed on the redhead's stomach. The healing energy drifted all over Gwen's body, sealing cuts and putting bones back into place, but the effort required to fully heal Gwen was clearly too much as Namine had to stop midway, collapsing onto the bed.

"Namine, are you still awake?" Gohan asked, at her side in an instant, 'Ben' not far behind. Yawning loudly, Namine nodded her head as Gohan picked her up and laid her on the spare bed nearby.

"I managed to heal their most life threatening wounds." Namine said softly, her heavy eyelids closing. "All three will live, but they're all still... in bad shape. Keep them sedated while I sleep." She muttered, her voice becoming softer and softer as she fell into an exhausted sleep. Leaving her to her rest, Gohan turned to 'Ben' sympathetically.

"They'll be ok. Just let them sleep it off. You alright with monitoring them while I call the others? I'd like to get back at whoever did this and find out what happened to Kim, Danny and Roxas as soon as possible."

"Do you mind if we switch roles and I make the calls?" 'Ben' asked, feigning hesitancy. "Watching them is just making me more worried."

"Sure. If that's what you want." Gohan nodded, a little confused, but he brushed it off as nothing. "Call me when they get here. It shouldn't take long for them to arrive."

"Right." 'Ben' nodded, ducking out of the room. A dark smirk crossed his face as he made his way down the hallway, following the path that the blueprints he'd hacked into said lead to the bridge. _I'll have to give them the alert to keep up appearances, but after that, I'll have plenty of time to do my job._ He thought darkly, barely holding back a snigger.

It didn't take him long to find the bridge and he immediately went to the com system. "Let's make this quick, the big brute is hardly the patient type." He muttered to himself as he activated the system. It was easy to work the system and he quickly managed to open the connections to Jake and Rai. "Guardians come in, we have an emergency." He called, feigning panic. As predicted, the boys were quick to respond, their visuals appearing on screen.

"Rai here."

"Am Drag too. What's goin on?"

"We were blasted at the lake by one of Danny's old enemies." Albedo cried, letting a few alligator tears fall down his face. "Gwen's in bad shape, Namine's drained from having to bring her, Grampa and Kevin out of death's grip and there was no trace of Roxas, Danny or Kim after the blast."

"WHAT?" Jake and Rai shouted simultaneously, both going exceedingly pale. "You've gotta be kidding us." Rai added, desperate for it to be a sick joke.

"I wish I was." Albedo moaned in response, looking sadly at the ground. "We need you guys here as soon as possible to find out what happened to the others and stop this guy."

"We're on our way." Rai replied quickly, a furious look on his face as he signed off.

"Don't worry Ben, we'll fix this." Jake said reassuringly before signing out too.

As the screens went blank, a dark smile instantly replaced the sad look on Albedo's face. They were all falling into his hands, doing exactly what he'd predicted they'd do. And now he'd be left alone until he got warning of ships approaching the satellite. With all the free time he'd have before that happened, it shouldn't be much of a problem to complete phase two of the plan. Chuckling, he sat himself before the main computer and hacked in to all of the security and defences, both on the satellite. _Once I'm done here, the planet will be completely defenceless. Then the real party will begin._

...

"Has anyone got a clue where we are yet?" Ben groaned, throwing his head back in exasperation. The group had been walking the streets for half an hour and he still had no clue as to where they were, only that it was near the beach and probably in America, judging by the accents. However, when Danny had pointed that out, Roxas had quickly put doubt in that hopeful thought by pointing out that many people in other worlds had the same accent. He after all was living proof of that.

"No, I haven't seen any... actually, scratch that, I'm going say the coast of Florida." Kim stated, stopping midsentence, staring strangely towards a shop.

"Really, how do you know that? I haven't seen any signs." Danny asked, looking towards the store she was staring at, expecting to see Florida up somewhere in big letters.

"Because it's part of the newspaper's name." Kim answered, pointing to the paper stand. "Off to the side of it is the date and I really hope it's a screw up."

"Why?" Ben asked approaching the pile of paper in question. "It just says... August 10 2005?" He gasped, his eyes growing to the size of dinner plates.

"Funny, I thought the date was somewhere in October in 2010." Roxas commented, though with Roxas, they were unsure whether he was being sarcastic or serious. Dates, like many other things, were different in different worlds and Roxas often ended up mixing them up.

"Talk about unpredictability." Danny cried incredulously before turning to the blond. "It's a good thing that we decided against trying a portal to the satellite. There's no base in space to go to."

"Forget about that right now." Ben said, frowning as he rubbed his forehead. "August 10th 2005 in Florida. That's ringing bells in my... holy crap, this is the place!" He cried, staring around the crowded area, as if only just noticing his surroundings. "And the hotdog guy..." He muttered, noticing a hotdog stand rolling into the area. "I'm here."

"Um yeah, we noticed that. We came here with you remember?" Kim responded, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I mean little me. Ten year old me." Ben said wildly, turning to the others and throwing his arm out to a clothes shop. "Grampa, Gwen and I will come running out of that shop about one minute after-"

A sudden explosion cut him off at that moment, causing all four of them to jump and whip around. There, in the middle of the street, a wheel from the hotdog stand rolled away from a burning mess and what looked like a mix and match monster.

"Kevin blows up a car and the hotdogs." Ben finished unnecessarily as the screaming crowd backed ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"That's Kevin?" Danny asked incredulously, watching as the freak of a creature shot fire and crystal shards at everything in sight. "Wow, have things changed!"

"Yeah, that's the old, evil Kevin." Ben nodded, watching the scene with his fingers twitching to the Omnitrix. However, just as he touched it, he seemed to realise what he was doing and pulled them away. "I guess since we know that I'll win, we should just stay out of this and let history take its course."

"Yeah, I guess you're-" Kim stopped and gasped, along with the rest of the group as a little girl tripped over a piece of debris right as Kevin turned in her direction, fire already growing in the palm of his molten arm. Screwing the whole 'don't change history' law, Kim charged straight in, right into the literal line of fire. The flames heating her skin even from a distance, Kim never slowed down as she reached the now crying little girl and scooped her into her arms before using her speed to flip onto and over a car, seconds before the flames would have consumed them.

"I never knew that happened." Ben muttered, looking horrified. "If that happened, then who else got killed before I reached a battle field?"

"Don't worry about that Ben, you can't help it. And the girl's safe now." Danny replied, transforming as Kim hand the crying girl to her worry stricken mother. "And seeing as Kevin's targeting Kim now, I'm going in." With that he took off into the air and shot straight at Kevin. He struck while the monster in question was approaching a glaring Kim menacingly, planting two fists into his chest and knocking him down into a truck with surprised and pained scream. "Hi ugly, meet Phantom."

...

"Come on, That's Kevin outside. I've got to stop him." The high pitched voice of a young Ben Tennyson shouted, shouldering his way through the crowd.

"Ben, wait for us. Kevin's too strong to fight blindly and we don't know what he's gained during his time in the Null Void." Gwen yelled as she and Max struggled to follow the boy.

"I don't have time to wait for slowpokes. Kevin's out there causing who knows... whoa, who are they?" Ben cried, going from impatient to astounded as he finally passed through the doors. He watched with amazement as Kevin tried to take a swipe at a flying guy with snow white hair in black and white spandex, only for the guy to phase right through his fist. At the same time, a redheaded girl leapt into the air, twisted her body in the air and slammed her heel in the joint connecting Kevin's neck to his shoulder, causing the behemoth to stumble with a gasp as she dropped away and twisted back to her feet.

"Wow, did you see that?" Gwen asked excitedly as she stopped beside Ben, her mouth and eyes open in amazement. "She didn't use and powers and still made Kevin stumble with just one kick. You couldn't do that with Four Arms." She added with a smirk.

"Oh yeah?" Ben snapped, reaching for the Omnitrix. "I'll show you what I can do."

"Don't bother." A masculine voice said as a hand covered the device, causing him to look up in surprise to find a brunette boy clad in only green swimming trunks grinning at him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about the guy seemed familiar. "They can handle this no problem." He added as a boy with blond hair clad in a green shirt and black swimming trunks came up beside him, looking a bit worried.

"Huh? How do know about this thing?" Ben asked suspiciously. The guy obviously knew about the Omnitrix, but he was sure that they hadn't met before.

"Now that would be telling." The brunette grinned before turning back to the fight. "Just watch the show. I promise that these two don't disappoint." Raising a confused eyebrow, Ben just did as he was told, as did Gwen and Max.

After a few seconds, the boys words rang true in the boy's mind as a ball of green energy struck home on Kevin's back, sending him face first into the ground. "Whoa, that guy is awesome!"

Kevin gave a primal scream as he thrust his crystalline arm up at Danny, sending a barrage of dagger like shards straight at him. However, the ghost boy just stood there and grinned before turning intangible at the last minute, leaving the shards to crash into nearby cars and buildings and making civilians scatter.

"Damn it! Stop phasing!" Kevin growled, leaping into the air. Seeing Danny simply rise higher, he tried rapidly flapping his insectoid wings to get what little height and prolonged flight they gave his bulky body. However, Kim chose that moment to remind him of her presence as she leapt off a car and onto his back as he started to rise. Grinning cockily, she grabbed the base of all of his wings in her hands, inhibiting their movement.

"Get off of me, you good for nothing weakling." Kevin growled, turning his head as far around as he could to see her as he tried in vain to get his back there and grab her.

"I'll give you good for nothing weakling." Kim snapped. Following his wishes, she jumped off, only to use his head as a board, kicking off of it into a back flip as they got close to the ground. The sudden, unexpected force on such a sensitive part of his body caused his body to spin forward and he crashed head first into the ground, Kim landing gracefully on her feet a few meters away.

"You'll pay for that girl." Kevin growled between ragged gasps. "You and the freak boy up in the sky."

"Hey! Who are you calling a freak?" Danny shouted, looking quite offended. "At least I don't look like a mix and match reject."

The retort only seemed to make Kevin angrier as he used his full speed before jumping off a car and rebounding off a building, breaking a hole in the wall in the process, straight towards Danny, fire appearing in his molten hand and a sharp blade growing from the crystalline one.

Danny just smirked at him for a second before disappearing without a trace.

"What?" Kevin cried, the flames disappearing as his concentration broke. "Where did he go?"

"Up here!" Dual voices called, using the exact same voice and tone. Turning himself in the air, Kevin had just enough time to widen his eyes before to identical, grinning phantoms shot balls of energy the size of basketballs at his chest and stomach. Screaming in pain, he plummeted back to the earth, dust and debris flying all over the crowd as he made a crater in the road.

"Maybe we should help." Roxas said softly, catching all of the Tennysons' attention.

"What? Nah, they have this under control." Ben brushed it off.

"I'm fully aware that they don't need saving, I can't say the same for everyone else." Roxas responded, waving his hands around the area. "A lot of damage is being done and in case you haven't noticed, the crowds stopped running away five minutes ago. Now they're crowding around the fight and it's only a matter of time before someone's hurt."

"Your friend's right." Max stated firmly before turning to his youngest grandson. "Go finish this Ben."

"Right." Ben said cockily, moving to activate the Omnitrix again.

"Don't bother." Older Ben said again before turning back to the fight. "Hey guys, stop showing off and wrap this up will ya?" He shouted.

"Ok." Danny called.

"Not a problem." Kim shrugged.

"YOU THINK IT'S THAT EASY?" Kevin roared, charging in at Danny and Kim again. Not waiting to reach them this time, he took a deep breath and spat multiple slime balls at them.

"Now that's just gross." Kim shouted disgustedly, leaping into the air. Rising after her, Danny grabbed Kim by the waist and tossed her straight towards Kevin as hard as he could. Twisting her body in midair, she sailed over the big brute before spinning her body again and slamming her leg into the back of his knees, sending him tumbling towards the ground again. However, before he could fall halfway, Danny shot in front of him, both of his glowing hands placed right in the centre of Kevin's chest.

"Nighty night!" Danny smirked and released a powerful, point blank beam, blasting Kevin's screaming form away faster than any had seen him move before, over a ducking Kim and into a concrete wall, causing anyone nearby to run away screaming again. When the resulting dust settled, it revealed on sore and unconscious creature.

"Well, that takes care of that." Danny stated, dusting off his hands as he turned to the cheering crowd. The cheers sounded good to his ears, the second he noticed a camera and microphone in a pair's hands, he quickly got nervous. "Sorry to kick butt and run, but I gotta fly." Taking into the air, he grabbed Kim around the waist and took off in the direction opposite to the beach.

"I think we better get moving." Roxas stated, turning seriously to Ben. "Our friend seems to have forgotten that we have no communicators and that the three who could track them down aren't here. If we don't move, we may lose them."

"Yeah, you're right." Ben nodded, turning to Max. "I trust that you can send him back to the Null Void." He said, nodding towards Kevin before a sudden, confused look crossed his face. "Wait a minute, I remember Kevin bragging about not being alone this time. Then... THE ROBOTS CAME!" He shouted the second it clicked in his head.

"The what?" Roxas asked, not understanding why Ben looked a little more worried then he'd expect with the idea of such simple opponents. He didn't have to wonder long however, as at that moment the screaming started again, followed by multiple explosions. Whipping around, Roxas found himself staring at two, large orange robots with round heads quickly approaching their location, lasers full charged and about to fire.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Vilgax's robots? I gotta..." A sudden flash shot past him before he could finish his sentence, the wind created from the movement causing him to look up from his wrist. He and Gwen simultaneously gasped in shock as Roxas tore down the street, his speed surpassing even the fastest of Olympic athletes.

Dodging the oncoming blasts with ease, he leapt onto the roof of a car, jumped towards a wall and kicked off, right up the robots' level of altitude. As the first machine approached him, he spun his body around, summoning Oathkeeper in a flash of light, and slashed cleanly through the metal, leaving the robot to fall to the ground in pieces. Kicking off a piece of falling metal and holding his Keyblade out to his side, he quickly and effortlessly repeated the process before landing lightly on the ground as small explosions came from the bulks of metal.

"Wow, did you see that?" Gwen asked excitedly. "That sword came out of nowhere. That had to be magic. And from looking at him, it's safe to say that he hasn't even broken a sweat. All of that effort and he might as well have been swatting a bug."

Before anyone could reply, more laser fire struck the area, heralding the arrival of another three robots. Ducking for cover, young Ben never let his eyes leave the blond as an unimpressed look crossed Roxas' face. Charging straight at the mechanical nightmares again, he didn't bother avoiding the laser fire, simply bating it away with his blade, before leaping off another car, onto a street light and up into the sky again. He struck straight through the first machine before kicking off the back of it towards the next. In another flash of light, a black blade appeared in his other hand and struck straight through the robot's charging laser gun, causing it to explode, the robot being blown apart in the process. Starting to lose altitude and with nothing safe to leap from, Roxas spun his body and pointed Oathkeeper straight at the centre of the final robot, giving it a smirk.

"Bye bye bucket of bolts. Light!" Nine javelins of light exploded from the shining blade, all of which hit home in every part of the robot. A second later, the city was given an amazing display as the pile of metal went up like a bomb.

The older Ben just chuckled as Roxas landed, his arms and blades outstretched at his sides. "You just had to show off didn't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Roxas replied innocently, though the mischief in his eyes was noticeable to everyone.

"Yeah right. You could have turned them all five to rubble with one shot if you wanted to and from the ground too." Ben retorted, punching him playfully in the shoulder.

"Well, yeah, I could have." Roxas shrugged, grinning slyly. "But that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. And the others got to show off so why can't I? Why were you so worried about those tin cans anyway?"

"Two things" Ben stated, looking around the area and sighing when he noticed that the civilians had finally disappeared. "The first being all the damage they did the first time round and the second being that." He continued, pointing behind the keybearer. Turning around, Roxas found himself staring, curious and impressed, as the robotic parts still functioning pulled themselves together and quickly formed a new robot, one much bigger and deadlier than those that had made it up.

"That's what you were worried about?" Roxas asked, eyeing the machine as it approached. "It definitely looks impressive, I'll give you that. Machines that repair and develop themselves. I've never seen that before. But it's still nothing to me." With a casual wave of his hand, he raised Oblivion, pointing it right at the centre of the pile of metal. The tip of the blade glowed with white light for a second before a thin beam struck the centre of the robot. For a moment nothing happened, worrying the young kids. However, as the robot tried to move, numerous clangs came from within it and a second later, it completely fell apart.

"WHAT?" Young Ben screamed as the last of the scrap metal fell to the ground, his eyes the size of dinner plates. "It takes me forever to destroy those things before they rebuild themselves and when they do, they're almost unstoppable and he did it with one, thin line of light?"

"Definitely magic." Gwen commented, just as impressed as Ben before turning a smirk to her cousin. "And obviously far better at the hero thing than you. They all were."

"Yeah, yeah. I've gotta talk to this guy." Ben stated excitedly, running towards the teens before Max could stop him.

"Ok, now we really need to find the others." Roxas said firmly as his keyblades disappeared. "The question is, how do we do it?"

"Maybe we could-"

"Hey, you gotta tell me who you guys are and how you did that." Roxas chuckled at the look on Ben's face as he literally interrupted himself. It only grew louder as the younger form of Ben Ten reached them, staring up at them as if Christmas came early. "I've never seen someone handle those robots so easily before. And I'm the only person who ever beat Kevin. You and the white haired guy are so strong, how did you get that tough? And what are your powers exactly?"

"Wow, you ask a lot of questions." Older Ben commented ironically, causing Roxas to laugh. The sound caused both Bens to look at him, one with a raised eyebrow and the other with annoyance. Sighing, the Older Ben turned back to his younger counterpart, only to find Gwen and Max behind him, a Null Void projector in Max's hand and Kevin nowhere in sight. Taking in the projector, the cautious look on Max's face and the eager and determined one on his younger self, it quickly became clear to him that running away would be a difficult and could end with a one way trip to another dimension if Max didn't put that thing away. _So much for not messing with the past._ He thought with a sigh as he turned to his blond companion. One look into his blue eyes told Ben that the exact same thoughts and feelings were running through his head. Giving him a nod, Roxas took a step back, indicating for Ben to start talking.

"All four of us got about as tough as Roxas here through time and experience." Ben stated, getting the attention of all three Tennysons. "Most of which will happen over the next five years."

"What? The next five years?" Gwen gasped, staring back and forth from one teen to the other. "You mean... you're from the future? So that's how you knew the robots were coming!"

"Yeah, I'd lived it once before." Ben nodded, staring intensely. He broke out of it a moment later with a smile. "So tell me, do you recognise me?"

...

It was more than a little annoying for Albedo when two ships came close to the satellite. His work had proven to be quite progressive, more so than he had expected thanks to what had to be the most advanced computer systems ever created by humans at his finger tips, but it brought to an immediate halt as the scanners went off.

"Just great, now I'll need to hide my work." Albedo muttered, altering his programming and closing his programs behind two firewalls and erasing the computer's history records. Sighing, he opened the hanger doors and activated the satellite's speakers. "Gohan, the others have arrived. I'm meet you in the hanger." With that, he did one more quick check of his security and headed out of the bridge, wincing as his still injured body screamed at him. "UGH! Being injured does help with the deception, but it's definitely coming at a price."

...

Gohan reached the hanger just in time to see both of his friends running out of their ships. Both looked to him hopefully, praying something positive had been discovered, but the grim look on the young alien hybrid quickly dashed any hope they had.

"How is Gwen?" Was the first thing Jake asked as they reached each other, moving from one hope to the next. Unfortunately, that too was met with a sad sigh.

"She and the others are still in really bad shape." Gohan muttered, staring at the floor. "Namine had to use her energy sparingly on all of them. Ben was healed just enough so he could walk and the others enough so that they aren't about to die on us, but that alone has taken so much out of her that she still hasn't woken up from her exhausted slumber."

"Do we know who did this?" Rai asked, clenching his fists. "I wanna get my hands on him. And make it as slow and painful as I can."

"We only know that it's a ghost." 'Ben' answered, limping into the room. "Danny's ghost sense went off and then a blast came from behind me. The next thing I knew, my body was covered in injuries and I was in the middle of the lake. By the time I got back to the shore, everyone was unconscious or gone."

"What about ghost activity then?" Jake asked. "Any ghost sightings around the area?"

"No, the closest one is in Moscow." Albedo sighed, shaking his head. "Even Amity Park's been quiet."

"So this guy clips Ben, Gwen and two Plumbers before dropping off the map with three of us? How many ghosts have that much power?" Raimundo cried exasperatedly, throwing his arms into the air. "I mean, the only time Danny's needed any help at all was the whole Freight Knight fiasco. None of the others are beyond the skills of Amity Park's ghost hunters."

"Well, there are others, but none of them have bothered showing up." Gohan muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. "According to our files, Vortex, Undergrowth and Plasmius could all be too much for him on his own, but I think we'd notice if two out of three were involved and the other was last seen in space, not returning to Earth because ghost hunters would forever be hunting him."

"Why don't we check the files for any other potential suspects?" Jake suggested, already heading towards the bridge. "It's better than doing nothing."

Gohan and Rai were quick to agree, following him quickly. Albedo however, scowled as they past him, following the group a much slower pace. _I have to find a way to remove them from the satellite quickly. The longer they are here, the less work I can get done and the more likely my charade will be discovered._

...

While his young grandson had already started his long rant about how it was impossible for them to knows who the two were, Max's eyes widened in instant recognition. The boy looked shockingly similar to his son, especially in his teenage years, and the boy beside him now. Glancing at his wrist, he was almost put off by the different watch resting there, but that was nullified a second later as a twitch of the wrist revealed the Plumber's symbol.

"I mean, sheesh, if you don't even start your hero days until after today, how could we possibly-"

"I see you've calmed down a bit in the last five years." Max interrupted, gaining a gawk from the younger Ben. "I hoped you would. I don't think your team would be able to handle you if you hadn't. I mean, the main reason we do right now is because we're family and we love you Benjamin."

"HUH? What? That's me?" Young Ben cried, turning back to the older, grinning brunette. His jaw dropped to the ground as he stared in pure shock at the person he was going to become.

"The resemblance is uncanny and he has knowledge of everything we've got to the Null Void projector. You should have figured it out the moment he said he's from the future, dweeb." Gwen said, giving him a superior grin. Ben however, for the first time in his life, didn't take the bait. He just continued to stare at his future self until his stunned look turned into one of excitement.

"This is so COOL! Now I've seen my adult and teenage selves. And I'm going to be on a team with heroes good as me." He cheered, throwing a fist into the air, much to the amusement of the teenagers. "I knew it was only a matter of time before my greatness would be discovered by other heroes."

"Wow, how did your ego fit inside that head of yours?" Roxas asked teasingly, getting a light punch in the arm from Ben in response.

"But where's the Omnitrix?" Younger Ben asked confusedly, bringing the teens back to the others as younger Ben grabbed his counterpart's wrist. "Why would you take it off? How can you be a hero without it?"

"That is it." Older Ben responded, getting a surprised look from himself. "It transformed a while back. It's more advanced now."

"Sweet! I'm going to grow even more powerful." Younger Ben cheered, causing the teens to chuckle and the others to sigh. "But you gotta tell me about this awesome team I'm on. Am I the leader? How many times have we saved the world? Do we have a really cool base? And gadgets?"

"How about we save this for later." Roxas stated firmly, before Gwen could snap at her cousin, as the sound of sirens hit his ears. "I doubt any of us want to explain any of this to the cops and we still need to find the others. Besides, the less people who know about time travelling teenagers, the better in my book."

"I'd have to agree." Teen Ben nodded, turning to Max. "Think we could get the heck out of here in the rust bucket?"

"Not a problem." Max nodded, quickly leading the way to the van. "Do you know where your friends would have gone?"

"Not a clue." Teen Ben sighed. "And we left our communicators back in the future. We'll just have to head in the direction they did and hope for the best."

...

Deep within New York, hidden from the view of the public, stood what could only be called a fortress. Thick metal walls and weapons like none normal humans even knew existed protected the perimeter. Within was no different. The structure completely made of thick steel, it housed the deadliest training courses known to man on one side, vaults containing weapons and vehicles beyond normal human technology on another and a third for computer systems that would make any nerd have a heart attack.

It was one of these computer screens that drew the attention of what looked to be a green clad ninja. It had suddenly started a loud, incessant beeping a little while back and the man had yet to determine the source. Getting frustrated, he was about to pound away on the keyboard before the door behind him opened with a mechanical whoosh, allowing a much bigger man enter the room. He was dressed similarly like the first one, except he had a dragon skull over his head, like a helmet, and a green cape coming down his back. The air of authority rolled off of this man in waves.

"Report! What despicable source of magic have we detected?" He demanded, sending an uncontrollable shiver of fear through the minion.

"I-it's a powerful explosion of unfocused magic that occurred about an hour ago." The inferior man said nervously, his typing speed doubling in his master's presence. "I've just managed to get a lock on the location of the event, a park in Florida, but I can't determine what could have possibly caused it. The only source I've picked up in that area since is a completely different source of magic that spiked and disappeared near the area about five minutes ago sir."

"I see." The master muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. "We appear to have enemies who are cautious and suppress their energies. Interesting." Staring at the screen for a moment, he memorised the exact locations for each burst of power before turning back to the tech. "Alert the clan. We have some pieces of filth to exterminate."

...

A man with skin and a face as pale and sunken as a ghost flew quickly past the border into Florida. He too had noticed a powerful and explosive rush of magic. His ability to sense such powers were second to none and such a burst of raw power had almost caused a headache, despite how far away he'd been. It'd only taken him a moment to realise that it was because of a non-magical energy had mixed into it and that only caused his urge to find the power grow.

_A way to increase the effects of magic well beyond the caster's usual limitations._ He thought, grinning darkly at the possibilities. "Whatever it is, I will have it and then this world shall be mine."

...

"So how do you think they'll find us?" Kim asked, rubbing her ankle. Not wanting to draw people's attention to them anymore, Danny had turned the two of them invisible and flown out of town. Currently, they sitting in a small field just outside of town with buildings before them and trees behind them, Kim rubbing the few bruises she'd acquired in the fight. Hitting that mix and match body alone had been enough to do damage.

"Without our communicators, the only way is for me to bring them here." Danny replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't really think this through."

"No kidding." Kim agreed, though there was no spite in her voice. "You're going to have to be extremely observant. They saw which way you flew, so they'll head this way, but who knows how they'll travel."

"Which is why I'll have to let them see me." Danny stated, taking into the air. "Will you be alright on your own for a while?"

"Hello, we are not exactly under attack at the moment. And besides, I can take care of myself." Kim retorted, giving him a raised eyebrow. "I did make the team too, remember?"

"Yeah, I know. Sorry, force of habit." Danny sweatdropped before shooting into the air. "See you later."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Don't you have any idea where they might have gone?" Young Ben whined for the eighth time, resting his head between his arms on the table. Since taking off, the van had been driving in circles. The few hints they'd gotten on the others' location proved useless as the whispers they'd heard mentioned them disappearing in the blink of an eye. And to make it worse, the older Benjamin and his friend had refused to explain anything until the others were found. Boredom and impatience were two things Ben got quick and couldn't tolerate and he was feeling both of them now.

"For the last time, NO!" Benjamin snapped, staring irritably at the ceiling. "The only ways we can track each other are through the communicators or through mental abilities of allies who aren't here. Of the four of us, Danny is the only one who sense anything and even he can only sense ghosts."

"What are these mental tracking abilities?" Gwen asked curiously, pulling her view away from the window for but a split second. "Are they magic?"

"Yep." Roxas nodded. "The ability to sense people's energy signature is possessed by two of us, one using magical version and the other using a Ki manipulation related one, and the third is telepathic. Though that ability also comes from her unique magic."

"Then there's Danny's less useful ability I mentioned before and another one of us has a magical pair of glasses that allow the wearer to see their future." Benjamin added. "But again, they're all in the future. It's too bad Namine's not here, her powers would be the most... that's it!" His eyes alight with realisation and excitement, Benjamin whipped his head towards Roxas. "Yours and Namine's powers at the most basic level are the same, right? So if she could develop her powers to alter the mind, you should be able to too!"

"Why didn't you just do that before then?" Ben asked exasperatedly, throwing his arms into the air as everyone, minus Max, stared pointed at the blond.

"It's not that easy." Roxas responded defensively, raising his hands. "Namine was born with her abilities the way they are. She and I do use the same type of magic in its basic form and thanks to our connection we can amplify each others' powers, but that doesn't mean that we are capable of using each others' abilities ourselves. The way our powers developed is still unique to each of us."

"Yeah, but it's magic and I've seen you going over spell books before." Benjamin replied rationally. "Your powers are adaptable right? You can learn to focus magic in a different way. I mean, you're not Jake or Rai who only have set abilities. Yours is more like magic in its raw form, the only boundaries to it being that it's the powers of light. Similar Gwen's."

"I thought your magic blades were what gave you your power." Gwen commented.

"No, it's only part of my power, though an extremely important part." Roxas muttered, frowning deeply in thought as he stared at the ground. "You might be right Benjamin. Namine mentioned that a living spell book told her there was much greater depths to her abilities at that wizards school, so it would make sense that it would be the same for me."

"The Freight Knight mentioned you having enormous hidden power too, according to Rai." Benjamin added, only to feel guilty when Roxas flinched at the memory. "Sorry."

"It's ok." Roxas shook his head, calming himself down. "Let's just see if this works." Closing his eyes, he racked his brain on how to do it. He'd talked to all the other Guardians about their sensing or telepathic abilities before, but didn't have a clue how to duplicate them. The only way that even seemed possible to him was when he was going over Gwen's...

"Maybe that'll work." He stated loudly, making everyone jump before turning to Gwen. "Could I borrow your spell book?"

"Um, ok sure." Gwen mumbled confusedly, pulling the small book out of her pocket.

"Thanks." Roxas said gratefully as he took it and quickly flipped through it. "Let's see, I know it's in here, but was it before shape shifting or after the transference spell?"

"He knows about the spells in my book?" Gwen asked, raising her eyebrow suspiciously at the older version of her cousin. Benjamin just grinned in response.

"Yep. You're the one who gave him the concept of spells."

"Found it!" Roxas cried triumphantly, settling on a page depicting a couple of figures with varying colours surrounding them. "It's not exactly what we want, but it's as close as I'm gonna get to sensing anytime soon and it's worth a try."

"And what is it exactly?" Max asked curiously over his shoulder while Ben just shot him a look of uncaring impatience.

"An aura spell." Roxas answered as he drew forth some of his power, his hands glowing white. "_Ostendo sum aura, LIGHT!" _The glow around his hands disappeared as light flashed from his eye, blinding everyone in the van and making Max thankful that they'd already stopped at a red light. As the pain receded and they were finally able clear their vision of white spots, Benjamin, Ben and Gwen turned to glare at Roxas, only to find him with a victorious smile on his face and a gentle, white glow covering his eyes.

"It worked." He cried triumphantly, laughing in sheer joy. "And thanks to the nature of my powers, even better than the book states. Not only can I see how good a person you are, I can see the exact balance between darkness and light and every ripple and alteration that comes with even the slightest movement or emotion. This is so cool! I can even see the alterations caused by powers. I don't know what's more amazing, that Gwen looks like she's _made_ of magic or the various powers flooding through the Bens from the Omnitrix. There's so many I can even differentiate between them. Actually, I'm gonna stop look at you two, it's giving me a headache."

"Serves you right for blinding us." Ben stated irritably, rubbing his eyes again. "And as cool as that sounds, how does seeing our auras help find your friends exactly?"

"I'm not just seeing the four of you." Roxas grinned, staring around the walls of the van. "I'm seeing the auras of everyone in the area, even people outside my usual field of vision. The downside is that I can't see anything but auras, so if I walk around I'll bump into everything, walls included, but I can see everything far beyond..." His head snapped up at that moment, frowning as he stared at the ceiling to his left. "That is definitely Danny. I'd say about one and a half kilometres away."

"Got it." Max stated, making a quick turn the second the lights changed and tossing everyone bar himself and Roxas, the only two wearing seatbelts, to the floor.

"How can you tell?" Gwen asked, her confusion evident as she pulled herself back onto her seat, rubbing her back tenderly. "I know it's very different for you, seeing as all I ever saw was a few colours hovering around people, but I could only ever tell who I was looking at because I could still see their faces."

"Danny's aura is mixed with ectoplasmic energy, making it very unique." Roxas answered, craning his neck as he followed Danny's movements. "It gives off both the warmth of a good person, but is eerie at the same time. Plus, if that's not enough, it's a single aura up in the sky. Even a helicopter will usually have two people."

"Well, you can't argue with that." Ben said quickly, before any opposing opinions could be given. "Hit the pedal to the metal Grampa." Benjamin just chuckled at himself as Gwen sighed. Humouring the boy, Max picked up the speed and drove on, keeping one ear out for Roxas' directions.

...

Only the boys' determination to discover the identity of their target prevented Albedo's cover from being blown by that point. Crimson eyes glared heatedly at a smaller computer in the bridge as he scanned the Earth for a ghost on a rampage.

Since the arrival of the monk and the dragon had arrived, the trio had put all of their focus in the ghost files in the archives and had left 'Ben' to scan the Earth for attacks. They ignored his presence so much that he could have continued his work without them having a clue if he was the one on the main computer, so his facade had quickly slipped from his face.

_Of all times for evil to take a lunch break, they choose now._ Albedo scowled, still finding nothing. _If I don't get rid of them soon, either the big brute will get impatient or these do-gooders will discover my plan._

It appeared that fate decided to give him a break as at that exact moment, a beeping came from the system._ Finally!_ Putting the emotional mask back on, he quickly turned to the others.

"Guys, there's an attack in progress in Colorado." Albedo cried, bringing the situation up on the main screen. Replacing the file of Technus was a perfect view of Technorg tossing a car into a building before slamming his fist into the ground, laughing as he unearthed blue crystals.

"That is not the guy we're after. He's still alive." Raimundo commented before flinching as a ragged guy with a long, bloody slash down his leg was tossed away like a rag doll. "That had to hurt. Only the homeless would try to steal crystal from someone like that."

"We better move, his minions are getting in on the action." Jake stated as a swarm of shrimps in black and armed with pick axes charged into the scene.

"Right." Gohan nodded, tossing off his weighted cloak as he turned to 'Ben'. "We'll deal with them. You keep trying t figure out what happened."

"You got it. Be careful." Albedo called as convincingly as he could as they flew out the door. Cackling lowly as the door closed, he shut down the files completely and brought his work back up. "It won't be long now." He sneered as he bypassed the last of the Russian military base's firewalls.

...

Benjamin wasn't sure what bothered him more, constantly fly off of his seat or Ben's complaining. Everything minute or so, Roxas would give another shout and Max would instantly change direction. He was constantly countering his directions like a child who would constantly head for one ride, only to decide they wanted to ride another halfway there.

Not that he could blame the bond. Danny was clearly trying to find them and searching everywhere. And the resulting strain on Roxas wasn't pretty. His veins were growing very noticeable at his temples thanks to all the warping, blurred colours that kept crossing his vision and with the speed and positions he was constantly twisting his neck into, he was going to be in a lot of pain very shortly.

"AGH! This is ridiculous. Would the guy just stay still already?" Ben cried for the umpteenth time. "I mean, he could at least fly in circles so we could find a place to meet him. How is he expecting you to find him, by growing wings?"

"DUH! Why didn't I think of that?" Benjamin cried, hitting his forehead before moving the hand to the Omnitrix. "I'll bring him down."

"In that case, he just moved behind us. Mr Tennyson, please just park somewhere." Roxas grunted, rubbing his head and dropping it as the energy left his eyes. "And someone pass me some aspirin. I can't take this anymore."

Smiling sympathetically through the rear view mirror, Max parked in the first available space and cut the ignition before heading to the medical cabinet.

"I'll be back in a minute." Benjamin stated as he activated the Omnitrix and brought up the hologram of his winged form before turning a smirk to Ben. "I think you'll get a kick out of this one." With that he pushed the Omnitrix back down and in a flash of green, a crimson, humanoid stingray appeared in his place. "Jetray!"

"Whoa! That looks so cool." Ben cried excitedly. "I get to turn into that? What can he do?"

"Just watch." Jetray grinned. Opening the door, he shot into the air faster than anyone could see.

"Cool! He's almost as fast as Xlr8. Only he can fly."

Closing his eyes, Jetray took a moment to simply enjoy the air rushing past his face before shooting off in the direction Roxas gave him. It didn't take him long to find Danny zigzagging through the air.

"Come on, where are th-AH!" Danny cried, turning to find a red face with plain, green eyes staring holes into his head.

"You know, you make it very difficult to actually reach you for someone who's trying to meet up with us." Jetray commented emotionlessly before cracking into a mischievous grin. "And after the pain you've put Roxas through, remind me not to stand between you two. I don't want a light javelin up my backside."

"Wha... how could I have caused him pain?" Danny asked confusedly, his hands reflexively moving to protect his butt.

"Come on, I'll explain on the way." Jetray replied, turning back the way he came with a now invisible Danny following behind him.

...

Kim looked up as an old, unimpressive van rolled into the area, recognising it immediately as Max's rust bucket. Panicking at the sight, she jumped to her feet and was about to swing away on tree branches before a certain white haired boy phased right through the front, his face filled with terror as he hid behind Kim.

"Danny? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Kim asked worriedly, her head turning back to look at him while the rest of her body dropped into a defensive stance.

"Let's just say if you ever feel like giving someone a headache the size of Godzilla, make sure you're wearing really thick padding. And earplugs." Danny quivered as the van stopped, letting the others out. His whimpering turned into a full on scream as Roxas left the van, still rubbing his temples, causing Kim to jump in surprise, the Bens and Max to chuckle, Gwen to roll her eyes and Roxas to grab his head and clench his eyes before sending the half dead hero a look that could have finished the job.

"What's going on?" Kim asked, raising an expectant eyebrow towards Benjamin. "And by that I mean why are they here and why is Danny terrified of Roxas? Roxas would have to be the calmest and most harmless guy on the team."

"In order, they would have followed us anyway, they were too excited or suspicious not too, and Roxas figured out how to see people's auras and use them to find people and found Danny's but our hybrid's constant, changing movements resulted in Roxas gaining a migraine and neck pain." Benjamin answered, chuckling the whole time.

"And the whole trip back, we've been making him think that blondy had been promising all different ways of hurting him. His silent glares helped out too." Ben added, laughing loudly. However, a hand was placed almost instantly over his mouth and looking up, he found it came from his older self.

"It was fun and funny, but we better can the noise now. If you cause Roxas much more pain, I might cease to exist if you know what I mean."

"Ok, fun's over and you're all together now." Gwen called, getting everyone's attention. "Can we get an explanation now?"

...

"Wow, this is so cool." Ben cried, jumping up from his seat, his fists held high. "I'll be responsible for stopping an army invading the entire planet. Am I the best or what?"

"Partially responsible." Benjamin corrected calmly, bringing Ben back down. "And I hate to break it to you, but there were one or two others at that castle that are stronger than me."

"Guess you're not all powerful after all dweeb." Gwen smirked as he rounded on her.

"Hey, at least I made the greatest team on Earth. I don't see your future self rubbing elbows with the greats."

"Actually, Lucky Girl is the most powerful female member of the team." Kim cut in, causing Ben to turn to her slack jawed and Gwen to grin cockily. "She's our most powerful and unpredictable magic user. About as strong as Danny here."

"Though in the group that's not saying much." Danny admitted with a shrug. "Most of us are around my level. Gohan's the only one who exceeds my power by an actually noticeable amount."

"What makes him so tough?" Max asked, rubbing his chin. "I can't think of anyone who'd have much more power than Ben other than Vilgax. With so many different transformations, it's hard to find anyone who can outdo him."

"Grandma could." Benjamin smiled, getting a gasp from the other three Tennysons. "A woman who's made of magic and knows how t use it. Even with three against one, we couldn't come close to beating her."

"Wow, Grandma's a sorceress like Gwen?" Ben asked slowly. "So is that how this go guy is so much better than me? Because he's like Grandma?"

"Oh no, Gohan doesn't have a drop of magic in his body." Benjamin answered, shaking his head. "Gohan's half human and half Saiyan, a warrior race."

"SAIYANS are on EARTH?" Max yelled, jumping to his feet. "They'll end all life as we know it."

"Don't worry, the Saiyans on Earth only fight to protect the planet, not destroy it." Danny said reassuringly. "And Gohan would have to be the gentlest person you'll ever meet off the battlefield."

"Well, now that Ben's need to discover what 'greatness' the future has in store for him has been dealt with, how about we move on to why you're here?" Gwen asked as Max sat back down. "I mean, is there something you needed to change or something? Is Ben about to screw something up?"

"Hey, who says whatever it is isn't your fault? After all. How often do your spells actually do anything good?" Ben snapped, getting right up in Gwen's face, resulting in a glaring contest.

"Um, are we sure we're actually talking to Ben and Gwen Tennyson?" Kim asked, staring at the arguing duo amusedly. "They sure don't act like you guys."

"No kidding. You two are like best friends, not an old, married couple." Danny nodded in agreement as he turned to Benjamin.

"Us best friends?" Ben and Gwen cried simultaneously before turning their noses in opposite directions. "Never!"

"Yeah, that's us." Benjamin nodded, chuckling at the sight. "We've grown up a lot."

"Ok guys, enough messing around." Max ordered, putting the cousins' argument to rest and gaining everyone's attention. "We need you four back to your time before something happens to negatively alter history irreversibly. So why did you come back anyway?"

"Freak accident." The group looked up to find Roxas coming out of the trees. The blond had taken off in search of silence before and it looked like it did him good. His headache had finally disappeared and the death glare had left his face. "A molecular displacer's blast mixed with raw magic."

"That's not good." Max mumbled, resting his hand on his fist. "So I guess you guys have no way of getting home."

"Nope." Danny sighed. "I could have taken us to see Clockwork, but my parents haven't made our family's ghost portal yet and natural portals open and close randomly and don't last very long."

"I have a transformation that can alter time and space, but I can't control the form. It has two extra minds that always bicker with me and each other." Benjamin sighed, staring down at his watch.

"My portals don't cross time." Roxas muttered, making his hand glow. "And my knowledge of magic doesn't come close to Gwen's. But I guess that's expected, seeing as I'm technically not even two years old yet. Don't ask." He added, seeing the confused looks of Gwen, Ben and Max coming his way. "You won't believe the story anyway. Just wait for the even to happen in five years."

"Hmm, speaking of Gwen." Benjamin muttered, staring down at her ten year old version with a calculative look. "Your adult self once took us to the future. Did you ever find the spell for the time portal?"

"No. It's not in my spell book." Gwen replied sadly. "I must get it from another."

"Like maybe the book Hex stole from the museum when we first met him?" Ben asked. "You were ecstatic to see that pile of old scrap paper."

"Of course!" Gwen stated excitedly, jumping right out of her seat. "The Archamada Book of Spells! It contains all of the most powerful spells from the middle ages. It has to be in there."

"Too bad 'there' is in the hands of Hex." Benjamin stated, effectively killing the mood. "Who knows where he hid that book."

"Then we'll just have to head to a Plumbers base." Max decided, shocking everyone. "If alien tech had a part in bringing you here, than alien tech may have a part in your return home."

"Well, that's better than doing nothing." Danny agreed, getting to his feet. "Let's go."

"Oh man!" Ben sighed, sagging as everyone headed towards the van. "I was hoping they'd stick around for a while and kick more bad guy butt. I at least wanted to see how cool I've become."

"Get real dweeb, the longer they're here, the more damage is done to their timeline." Gwen said irritably. "Who knows exactly how much their presence has affected alread-"

"GET DOWN!" Kim screamed, pushing the kids to the ground just as a green energy arrow struck the van. When the resulting explosion and dust of the impacting disappeared, it revealed a large, burning hole in the side of the vehicle.

"Ok, that wasn't supposed to happen." Benjamin said calmly, suppressing his worry. Turning back to where the blast came from, he tensed at the sight of at least forty warriors, all of them clad in green ninja robes and either carrying metal staffs like bows or riding hover boards made of the same material. The one right in front, the biggest and dangerous one of the lot, wearing a cape and what was clearly the skull of a dragon, took a firm step forward and raised his staff high, the top glowing a menacing green.

"Magical creature, prepare to meet you end."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"You guys mustn't be all that tough if you brought this many people to fight us." Ben smirked, staring cockily at the army before him, reaching for the Omnitrix. "Going her-WHOA!"

Before he could transform, a pair of bare arms grabbed him around the waist and yanked him off his feet and around a tree, just barely avoiding a barrage of green energy arrows.

"Are you nuts, insulting an entire army before you even suit up?" Benjamin cried exasperatedly, diving behind another tree as the first one fell before zigzagging behind a third and fourth. "They were bound to shoot you dead."

"Oh please, how tough can they be?" Ben asked impatiently, trying to squirm out of his grip. "Just put me down and I'll-"

"Get killed. They may travel in packs, but they are highly trained assassins. At least if I'm right." Benjamin interrupted, jumping out of the way of another falling tree. "Come on, I need a break here."

"One intermission coming up." Kim called, swinging past him through the tree branches. Spinning her body around in mid air, she swung back the way she came and struck the Ben Ten duo's assailant down hard, grabbing his staff as she did so, before charging in to face two other approaching ninjas.

Both brought their staffs down on her, only for her to use her own to block them. Not giving them a chance to respond, she twisted her staff back and forth, striking both opponents in the face, before dropping to the ground and striking both huntsmen in the back of the knees. Seeing neither of them were about to rise, Kim fiddled with the staff and smiled as she found the bow setting, firing energy arrows back at their creators.

"Ok, I admit it, she's awesome." Ben stated irritably, watching as Kim effortlessly took down three more men before dodging a retaliating barrage. "But _now_ can I show them how a super hero does it?"

Benjamin looked down at him with a look large grin at that, already raising his wrist. Smiling cockily back, Ben did the same, raising the controls.

"It's hero time!" The two cried simultaneously, smacking the controls back down. Everyone's attention was caught as an enormous flash of green energy surrounded the boys, revealing two very different shapes when it faded.

"RATH!" Roared what looked like a cross between a tiger and a wrestler, raising the claws coming from the back of his hands menacingly.

"Whoa, what a cool alien. When do I get this one?" XLR8 asked, staring at the new form in excitement.

"Uuh.. umm, in about..." Rath mumbled, lowering his fists as he strained his brain in thought.

"Yo, tiger man, what do you think this is, a picnic?" Danny shouted, flying overhead and shooting ecto blasts at the masses. "Get your head out of the clouds and fight."

"Let me tell you something Danny Phantom!" Rath growled menacingly, shaking his fist in the air. However, before he could continue, another ten ninjas had surrounded him and XLR8.

"I don't know what you two are, but we will destroy all magical creatures." One of them shouted, his staff glowing as he charged in for the kill.

Rath just snarled at him, moving just enough to face him. The ninja thrust his staff straight at Rath's chest, but before it could hit, Rath threw his fist out and his claw cut clean through the staff, leaving the ninja bug-eyed as the end fell off, the wires sparking uselessly.

"Let me tell you something Huntsclan! If you wanna fight, I'll give you a fight. But you better be careful or that fight might be more than you can fight." Rath roared, throwing his face right into his opponent's personal space.

"You lost me." The ninja said nervously, visibly shaking as his eyes flickered from Rath's fierce face to his giant muscles and claws as the tiger man stared at him dumbly.

"I KNOW!" Rath shouted randomly. Faster than the terrified ninja could see, Rath pulled his fist back and suddenly it felt like a wrecking ball had collided with his face, sending him flying over the tree line. "And now you lost to me too!"

"He's so cool." XLR8 said admiringly as Rath leapt with the liquid grace of a tiger over and around three energy arrows before sending two more ninjas flying like ragdolls. "I can't wait to turn into him."

"Hey doofus! Stop gawking at yourself and give us a hand." Gwen yelled, creating a shield to block another wave of energy fire. Looking up, the sonic speeder was a little surprised at what was going on around him. Gwen and Max were hiding behind her shield, occasionally lowering it to cast a wind spell or shoot a laser, while Roxas and Kim were leaping back and forth, forever dodging and blocking attacks while lashing out perfectly with their own. Danny was still in the air, green energy balls of his own raining down on the Huntsclan. However, despite all of that, what his future self said proved true. These guys, though they hadn't made any hits, were easily avoiding Danny's shots and many of Kim and Roxas' blows only made it to the staffs the first time round. In fact, Rath was the only one doing more than destroying weapons on the initial attack. Deciding that hero worship could wait until he bagged some from the others, Xlr8 took off at full speed.

Wherever the black and white blur went, huntsmen went flying. Though all of them got back up, their weapons were far from their reach, leaving them easy prey for Rath, Kim and Roxas.

"Roxas, give me a boost." Kim called, flipping into the air. Kicking a huntsman away, Roxas positioned himself where she was due to land and held up his blades, crossed and flat side up. As Kim landed perfectly in the middle of them, he thrust them up as hard as he could, giving Kim's next jump enough momentum to sail over the horde and land into a flip before the leader. "Hope you don't mind if I drop in."

"Not at all. Now I can slay one of you myself." Huntsmaster retorted, lashing out with a fierce roundhouse kick. Kim leaned horizontally to the side, dodging the move before diving into an army roll to avoid an axe kick. Getting back to her feet, she set herself into an offensive stance, but immediately had to dodge again as a green energy blast was tossed from the crab-like claw at the top of his staff.

"Man, this guy's good." Kim admitted as she brought her staff up to block his, only to stumble back as her staff was cut straight through. "And strong too."

"I have trained my entire life to fight and slay even the most powerful dragons." Huntsmaster stated coldly, lashing out with a vertical arch. "I will not be defeated by one in human form."

"Hate to break it to you, but..." Kim started, leaping onto the claw and propelling behind him. The second she landed, she dropped into a sweep kick, forcing the man to the ground. "I'm not a dragon. I always am and always fight as a human."

"Well then, this will be an interesting fight." Huntsmaster replied confidently, dropping his damaged weapon and dropping into an offensive stance.

Getting bored with the routine, Danny dropped into the enemy's ranks.

"You guys look pretty sweaty under all those robes." He stated, his eyes glowing light blue as he raised his hands above his head. "How about I help you cool off?" A ring of blue energy exploded from his hands at that, smashing into every huntsman within ten feet of him in every direction.

Rath seemed to be having the time of his life. Thirteen Huntsmen lay haphazardly all around him, either unconscious or whimpering in pain.

"And down you go weakling." He growled, smirking as he backhanded another huntsman. The ninja scream as the force of the blow sent him careening into a boulder, blood running down his cheek where Rath's claw had met his skin. "There is no competition here."

Not one to be outdone, Roxas' Keyblades shined brightly with white magic as he charged at the group here was fighting. Right as they were about to manoeuvre out of his way, Roxas smirked, brought his Keyblades together straight out in front of him and jumped right at them. The white energy increased in intensity and covered his entire being and increasing his speed, causing him to blast right through the huntsmen like a white comet before they could even move. Skidding to a halt, the light dispersed, revealing Roxas' calm form as the huntsmen were blown in all directions, already unconscious.

"Looks like my new technique works just fine." Roxas grinned.

"Oh man, there's only two left." XLR8 muttered disappointedly, running in circles around them and causing a small tornado. "I haven't actually knocked out anyone. All well, I better make myself known with these two." Moving to the centre of his circle, XLR8 waited for the screaming ninjas to fall before jumping into the air and lashing out with an invisible barrage of punches and kicks. Finishing it off, he spun around and struck them with his tail, sending them crashing to the ground, from which they didn't get up. "Well that was boring. Maybe I can jump in and show these future guys my stuff against the leader of this bunch of the losers." With that, he turned to where the last fight was going down and took off faster than the blink of an eye.

...

The Huntsmaster's right hook was knocked cleanly away by Kim's forearm as she shot her knee at his gut. Flipping sideways, he avoided the blow and launched a kick at her hip only for it to be blocked by her raised thigh before she jumped off of her other leg and smashed her heel into his chin.

"Grr!" Huntsmaster glared as he restabilised himself, his eyes performing a critical analysis of her form. _Her fighting style is flawless, as is her reaction time. Her body is built specifically for flexibility and yet she's still managing to place a significant amount of strength behind her blows. Hmm, it's a rare day I find a human opponent capable of standing up to me._

Keeping one eye on his opponent, he turned toward his men, hoping for some assistance and to see if the targets were dealt with yet, only to growl at the sight of all of them on the ground. _Unbelievable! Thirty against six and they still lost. These forces are stronger than I anticipated. They must all be at least as strong as this young woman. I must pull back immediately and call in the elites if I want to bring these creatures down._

"Sorry my dear, but I've got to run." Huntsmaster stated calmly, back flipping away from Kim's kick and grabbing his damaged staff. Pressing a few buttons faster than Kim could see, he tossed it into the air before him and watched as it turned into what looked like a metal surfboard with the claw at the end glowing. Not wasting a second, he jumped on the board and took off into the sky. "Until we meet again in combat."

...

"I can't believe you let him go!" Ben shouted at an emotionless Kim, throwing his arms into the air as the others approached them. "You were fighting one lousy person and you still let him get away! The other twenty nine are all lying on the ground after the butt kicking we gave them and you couldn't stop one. What kind of hero are you?"

"Knock it off." Ben tensed in fear as the low, venomous voice came from behind him and turned worriedly around. There stood his older self, staring at him with a look he hadn't seen since Max had given it to him the day they met Kevin, only far angrier.

"Don't you EVER attack someone like that again." Benjamin demanded, fighting to keep himself from exploding. "Kim is an amazing hero. The most experienced of everyone here and a great fighter. And she does it without a super powered watch. Without the Omnitrix, there's no way I'D stand a chance against her. Sometimes the bad guy, particularly the enemy LEADER, manages to get away. It happens to everyone, that doesn't mean that the hero is inferior. Or should I bring up how many times Kevin, Hex, Charmcaster and Animo managed to get away, usually with something very important?" Benjamin sent one more fierce glare at Ben before stomping off, gathering the Huntsmen with the help of Danny and three clones. "Man, I can't BELIEVE how immature I was!"

Ben just stared at where Benjamin had been but a moment before, his eyes wide and watery. The look on Roxas' face when he approached didn't make him feel any better. The blonde just sighed and shook his head as he stepped next to Kim, checking a shallow wound on her forearm. He couldn't believe this. Here he was, trying to prove how great a hero he was to these future teammates, even as a ten year old, and all they saw in him was disappointment.

"It looks like even your older self doesn't like you." Gwen stated, a ticked off look on her face as she and a disappointed Max approached him, crossing her arms. "I actually watched her fight while you were too busy admiring your own handy work. If she had XLR8's speed or Four Arms' strength, she'd wipe the floor with you no matter what form you took. What you said to her was completely out of line and not something a hero would say."

"Gwen is right Ben." Max scolded, pointing towards the teen heroine. "I believe an apology is in order.

Nodding shamefully, Ben headed over to where Kim sat, talking to Roxas as he finished treating her wound.

"So Jake's never mentioned these guys being able to track magic?" Kim asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope, and I've never had them coming after me either." Roxas replied, shaking his head. "So either the blast was extremely powerful or they have technology that they're going to lose."

"Umm..." Ben interrupted sadly, gaining both of their attention. Feeling more and more ashamed of himself by the minute, he couldn't look Kim in the eye, choosing instead to stare at the ground. "I'm sorry for what I said. I was out of line"

"No big." Kim responded calmly, shrugging her shoulders. "Normally I'd take offense, but you're lucky. Benjamin is my friend and has just as much respect for me as I have for him, so I'm willing to pretend that this never happened. Besides, future you already did all the yelling. The little killjoy, he took all the fun out of being in the argument."

"So... he and I are really different? Besides him getting along with Gwen?" Ben asked hesitantly, turning to look where Benjamin and Danny had finished rounding up the ninjas.

"Oh, you're going to mature." Roxas nodded. "For a start, the ego is going to disappear and you're going to actually respect the roles of the people around you."

"Roxas, don't be mean." Kim scolded, elbowing him in the ribs as Ben grew even more ashamed of himself.

"I'm just being honest." Roxas replied defensively, putting his hands up. Sighing, Kim turned back to the ten year old boy.

"Do you think he'll stay disappointed of me?" Ben asked, turning to where Benjamin had taken a seat, cell phone at his ear as he called the cops.

"Nah, he's you. He'll get over it eventually." Kim responded reassuringly. "Though it might help if you show everyone the respect they deserve all the time. That's something Benjamin has repeatedly commented on regretting and it's why he reacted the way he did five minutes ago."

"Well, I guess I could give that a try." Ben said, his eyes flickering towards Max and Gwen. "After all, I guess they have gotten me out of one or two problems before."

"Well," Kim said, slowly. "it's a start."

"Good thing he has five years to get it right." Roxas muttered, rolling his eyes.

...

"I never realised just how immature I really was." Benjamin stated, glaring heatedly at the pile of Huntsmen as he deactivated Gwen's cell phone. "How could I ever say that to someone like Kim? Without any powers to assist or protect her, if anything, she's the greatest hero of us all."

"You do realise that that you is just a kid, right?" Danny asked with a small grin. "Most ten year olds are pretty dumb and self-centred. I was, you were, even Gwen's got a bit of an attitude. But...most of us outgrow it as we get older. You're just getting the chance to see how far you've come."

"Maybe, but I never realised that I needed to come so far just to get to where I am now." Benjamin sighed. "You'd think having the Omnitrix and getting involved in the situations I did would teach me something."

"Nah, a ten year old would just get an ego boost." Danny responded, chuckling at the pouting look on Benjamin's face. "But even if you were an egocentric, selfish, idiot, there must have been something admirable in you too. Otherwise, you wouldn't gone as far as risking your life for other people and you wouldn't have turned into the respectable, caring person that you are today."

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult." Benjamin stated, though an appreciative smile grew on his face a moment later. "So you really think I'm a perfectly decent person?"

"Well, not perfectly. I mean who in this world_ is_ perfect?" Danny grinned, punching him playfully in the arm. "But you're close enough."

"Oh, I'm so glad you approve of me." Benjamin said sarcastically before tackling Danny to the ground. Laughing merrily, the two wrestled on the ground forever flipping each other over, much to the amusement of the others present. It wasn't until the sound of sirens could be heard in the distance that they stopped, Danny pinning Benjamin to the ground and both panting heavily before Danny got off of him and helped him to his feet.

"We probably shouldn't still be here when the cops show up." Max stated, nodding towards the RV. "Let's head out of here."

The group were quick to jump into the RV, though Ben kept some distance from his older self and took off through the maze of trees faster than most could. By the time the cops showed up, the RV was long gone.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** I'm covering a small mistake I made today. A few chapters back, I accidentally used the name Technorg when I meant to say Vulkanus. Just thought I'd clear that up so no one ends up confused or yelling at me. Enjoy

* * *

**Chapter 6**

The Huntsmaster winced painfully as his board came to a stop right in front of the Huntsclan's headquarters. Growling as his feet stomped onto the ground, he turned his board back into a staff and pinned in the pass code into a hidden security box, opening the base's hidden door and marching straight towards the control room.

"Sir, how did the mission go? Where are the others?" One man asked as he passed him. The Huntsmaster simply ignored him, giving the suddenly shocked man the answers to all of his questions, and almost blew the door to the control room of its hinges in his rage-driven haste to enter.

"Call the Elites." He demanded furiously, not even giving the man at the computers time to get over his surprised jump. "I need every one of them with the most dangerous equipment they can carry immediately."

"Y-yes master." The man stuttered as he whipped himself back around to face the computers and activated the communication system. When the master got like that, you did what he said before he's finished talking or you're screwed.

...

Light reflected blindingly off of the Rust Bucket from the car park while the salty air filled the lungs of the tired young heroes. Seeing as they weren't able to make it there before, Max decided to take advantage of the people leaving the beach to go there himself. While he was wrestling with his fridge looking for enough food for the group, the teens took Ben and Gwen to relax on the sand. Though some relaxed more than others.

"Woo Hoo! I haven't been able to do this all summer." Gwen cheered, launching a ball into the air. When Kim suggested a game of volleyball, Gwen was quick to agree. "It feels so good to be doing normal stuff for once."

"I know how you feel." Kim grinned, flipping back before sending the ball back over the net. "The hero thing is fun, but relaxing and having fun with your friends is what makes life worth living."

"Do you get to act normal often?" Gwen asked curiously, diving to the ground and narrowly stopping the ball from meeting the ground. "Or does the team go looking for trouble like Ben?"

"Oh, we don't go looking for trouble, it finds us just fine." Kim laughed, spiking the ball. Gwen wasn't to stop it from hitting the ground. "But we do have at least one or two people monitoring the planet at a time. Just in case one of us has trouble on our non-team related missions or if trouble's occurring in a place that isn't equipped to handle it. We always make sure everyone has time to relax and be themselves though. Roxas is the only one who ever gave up free time for work and even he's learnt how to have fun and refuses to go back to the slave driving he used to put himself through."

"Roxas was like Ben? Always demanding to be the hero?" Gwen asked as the ball was served, sparing a glance at the blond in question. "He doesn't seem like the thrill seeking/hogging type."

"He's not. It was personal issues. Don't worry about that now, you'll fully understand when you get there." Kim shook her head before smirking. "Besides, it's me you should be focusing on. Flip spike!" Jumping into the air, she flipped as the ball approached, bringing her fist around and slamming it into the ball as it reached her. The resulting speed of the ball's return towards Gwen proved far too great for the younger redhead.

"Whoa, what a move! You gotta teach me that." Gwen cried excitedly, clasping her hands up at her chest.

"Sure." Kim smiled, ducking under the net. Leaving the ball where it landed, she instructed Gwen on the basics and got her twisting her body properly.

"Shark fin soup? That always was a tasty meal." Max commented, rubbing his belly at the thought of it. "But I can't bring myself to eat it anymore. Not with the way people attack the sharks to get them."

"Yeah, this world is pretty cruel with some animals." Roxas nodded, looking a little disgusted. "But destiny Island's different. They won't just cut the fins off and leave the shark to drown, they give them a much less painful death. Plus, they actually find other things to make out of the rest of the shark and they only kill them at all when they're old, sick or becoming a huge problem. Now octopus, they'll hunt them down all day. The islanders love them, particularly the eyes."

"Oh yeah, they're the best part in my opinion. I'm sure I have some around here we can cook up." Max said excitedly, heading for the RV's door.

"NO WAY!" Jumping a foot in the air, both Roxas and Max turned around to see a very green faced Danny standing behind them, looking ready to puke yet still giving them a defiant glare. "I am not eating the eyes of anything. Or any of these maggots, dung beetles or crickets. Don't bother cooking, I'll just go out for pizza." With that white rings appeared around and spread across his body before the ghost boy of Amity Park took off into the sky as fast as he could.

"Hmm, all well, he has no idea what he's missing." Max shrugged as he watched the black dot disappear. Roxas could only chuckle at his side.

While the others talked and played, Ben stood away from the group, staring hesitantly at the sea. He really wanted to join his older self in the waves, but after their last confrontation he was nervous. He still felt as if he'd let himself down. After all, it was one thing to have someone else yell at you, but to have yourself angry and disappointed in you was another matter entirely.

_Either I'm the biggest hypocrite I know, or I really change when I get older._ He thought, taking another hesitant step towards the water. He gulped as a wave pushed Benjamin back towards him a bit and almost lost his nerve. _Grr, toughen up Ben! If you can't face yourself, then who can you face?_ Biting his lip, he took in a deep breath and forced himself into the water and though his steps became more hesitant as he continued on his way, he didn't stop until he was only a foot away from Benjamin.

"I apologised to Kim. And I'm sorry for letting you down." Ben sighed, dropping his head. Opening his eyes, Benjamin stared at his younger self, leaving him squirming for a moment, before placing a hand on his shoulder.

"A true hero understands that even true heroes aren't perfect. Sometimes we make mistakes and the bad guy gets away. But when that happens, they're always beating themselves up and it's their friends' job to be supportive." Benjamin said softly, gently bringing Ben's eyes up to his when his younger self still refused to look at him. "A true hero is kind and understanding as well as courageous. Don't attack those who have allied themselves with you for any reason. They are to be just as respected as you are by them. Never take anyone for granted or one day when you really need them, and I assure you that you will, they may not come. That includes Gwen and Grampa too."

"Wow, I'd never have said a speech like that. I must really change." Ben muttered, staring into Benjamin's eyes as if he was trying to find something. "You're so different from me. I've never thought of half of that before. Gwen and I always go at it when one of us messes up and that's basically what I did with Kim, but you were completely outraged. I don't see anything of me in you and I don't see our thirty year old self in you either. How did I become you? Not to say it's a bad thing."

"You matured." Benjamin answered, giving him an amused grin. "Right now, you see being a hero as a way of getting a thrill and making yourself important. But as time goes on, you'll find that the thrill is almost completely replaced with the desire to help others and the world won't be all about you. And your compassion for others will grow, especially for Gwen, once your ego deflates and that above all else is something you must hold on to. Remember, above all else it's our compassion, not our powers that separates us from the people we fight. It's that part of you that must always stay at the forefront."

"So basically, I just stop thinking about what's best for me? And then I'll grow until I become like you?" Ben asked, getting a nod. "When will this all start?"

"You've come to me after seeing how wrong your actions were and you've come to me humbly. I'd say you've already started." Benjamin chuckled, messing up Ben's hair. "Humility is a lesson we all must learn before we can become true heroes. By admitting that what you did was wrong, you've taken a step towards that title."

"I get it. They're all just as great and important as me, right? It's an honour just to say that I blend in with them." Ben asked with a small smiling, getting a proud smile from Benjamin in return.

"Couldn't have said it better myself. But after all the serious stuff is said and done, a little fun can never hurt." Benjamin added slyly, finally letting Ben see that not all of his mischievous nature was gone. "How about a little water war?" Bringing up the Omnitrix, he brought up the hologram form he wanted before a frown crossed his face. "Actually, let me see your Omnitrix for a second."

"Huh? Why?" Ben asked confusedly, but still raised his arm for the older shape shifter to see. Not answering him, he activated the controls and fiddled with them until he found the form he was looking for.

"There we are... and here's the code. Let's give it a shot." Activating his own again, he twisted the controls back and forth until a familiar form appeared for the first time in hologram and slapped it down.

"Ripjaws!" When the green flash ended, an older version of Ben's original aquatic form was in Benjamin's place. In addition to looking older, his body was now completely coloured in shades of grey with green fins and flippers, as opposed to the black and white that had decorated his younger form, and the scales on the front of his torso looked more like body armour. "Are you coming?" He asked, showing off his teeth as he smirked at Ben. Mimicking the look as best as a human face can, Ben brought his Omnitrix back up and in a flash of green, the younger Ripjaws was beside his big brother. The pair let out a soft cackle before submerging and shooting straight towards the shore. Skimming along faster than a dolphin, they reached the desired point and burst above the surface. Before Kim and Gwen could even turn towards them, they thrust their tails through the surface of the water and struck the redheads with a flood, thoroughly drenching them.

"BEN!" Gwen shouted at the cackling fish men, pushing her hair out of her irritated eyes while Kim spat water out of her mouth. "I am so going to get you for that!"

"You'll have to catch me first." The boys said simultaneously, laughing as they shot away from the shoreline.

"Let's get them!" Kim shouted excitedly before charging at the sea with a battle cry. Her hands already glowing with magic, Gwen followed her lead with a cry of her own, leaving Roxas and Max to laugh at the four.

"Well, at least all the tension between the Bens is gone." Max commented happily as the girls tried unsuccessfully to grab the boys. "Though I think Gwen might be a little disappointed with the outcome of this."

"I'll say, the girls will never catch the fish." Roxas nodded. Shaking his head, he raised his own hands as they started to glow. "Maybe I'll help them slow d- huh?" The second he said slow, the magic gathering in his hands flashed out across the area almost too quickly for anyone to see and when it settled, everyone on the beach was moving in slow motion. "Um, did I just cast a spell?" Roxas asked, scratching his head. "A time manipulating spell. Who knew I could do that? Well, might as well take advantage of it while it lasts." Shrugging off the surprise, he grinned playfully as he raised his hand again. "Light!" The blast of light this time turned into nine columns and struck the water just in front of the Ripjaws duo. The resulting blow occurred just as the time speed restored itself and the slowly widening eyes of the fish men opened to the size of dinner plates in an instant as the explosion caused a large and powerful wave that thrust them screaming towards the shoreline. However, Roxas smiled sheepishly as he noticed that he'd place too much power into his shot. The wave not only got the boys, but continued on to the girls. When it finally lost its momentum, all four of them were lying on the sand, fountains of water coming from their mouths. Roxas smiled innocently as four sets of irritated eyes land on him. "Um, hehe, a bit much?"

"Ya think?" Four annoyed voiced snapped back.

...

Beyond the visible reach of the heroes, over the ocean, floated a lone man. He was sitting with his legs crossed as his eyes focused on the group with a wooden staff with the top shaped like a dragon head with an open mouth in one hand and an old and ominous looking book in his lap. Looking at his body, you'd think he was a zombie.

"So, he must be the one with the power I sensed." He muttered, focusing on the light magic wielder backing away from the irritated youths. "Even able to mess with the workings of time, if only within a set range of himself. I must obtain the secrets that this boy possesses. They may give me the power to rule this world."

...

"Who knew that so much Taedenite had made it to this backwater planet?" Vulkanus smirked, blowing more and more concrete into oblivion and revealing more beautiful, bluish green crystals. "Soon I'll have enough to power my new weapon and get revenge on Tennyson and his friends by eradicating this world."

"So you're a mouthy one are ya?" Vulkanus jumped as the sly voice made it to his ears and looked up just in time to see a large, red fist before it slugged him in the face. Completely unprepared, the blow flung him right off his feet with a bellow, spinning until he collided with the ground. "And what do ya know, he's all show."

The American Dragon flew a few circles around the fallen alien, laughing merrily, as Vulkanus pulled himself back to his feet. However, when Vulkanus tried to lash out at him he was quick to straighten his flight path, landing just beyond his opponent's reach.

"You know, I was expecting a lot more tolerance of my blows from someone so big and bulky." Jake said, looking unimpressed.

"Oh yeah?" Vulkanus shouted, leaving Jake yawning at the lousy comeback. "You just caught me at a bad moment. I'm way too much for a scrawny reptile like you."

"Oh really?" Jake said lowly, his body tensing in his irritation. "You think you have what it takes to take on the Am Drag? Then let's see it cue ball."

"Why bother? You won't even get past my minions." Vulkanus smirked, waving his hand. Instantly, around twenty midgets charged at the young hero, their alien pickaxes alight with their electrical current as they were raised above their owners' heads.

Snarling, Jake whipped his tail forward and struck the first to reach him in the gut, sending him barrelling away before dropping onto all fours to dodge another two and retaliating with a burst of fire, burning them black as they fell to the ground. Seeing another five quickly coming in to replace their fallen comrades, Jake spread his wings and took to the air, grunting loudly as one pickaxe cut a line straight through the scales on his foot, blood dripping from it to the pavement.

"Hey, I'm calling unfair play!" The cry heralded a red and white form's plummet towards the ground. Just as he was about to smack into the ground, Rai pulled an immediate halt and flipped himself upright before spinning so fast that his body looked like a red and white blur.

"Wudai star wind!" A split second later, his spinning form created a tornado, sucking in all of the still active minions. One by one, the intense wind flung them careening into the sky, all of them being released in the same direction. Jake waited just below their flight path and shot flames as they flew by, aiming for their weapons. With each one is shot was perfectly accurate, resulting in the weapons blowing up and the minions left useless.

"And that's the last of them." Rai grinned triumphantly as the wind died down, pulling himself to a halt. It went away almost immediately as blood struck his cheek and a sharp gasp from above met his ears. "Jake, are you ok?" He asked worriedly as the young dragon lowered himself to Raimundo's side.

"They cut right through my scales and it's not the most shallow wound I've ever gotten either." Jake hissed, favouring his right foot as blood continued to fall from it. "You gotta give those toys of theirs some credit. Very few things can cut through dragon scales. But I'll be ok."

"Not for long." Both boys looked up to the growling face of Vulkanus. "No one defeats Vulkanus. I'm going to have you begging for mercy."

"You mean like Ben and Gwen did?" Rai asked, his smirk growing when Vulkanus flinched. "Our files say that they've beaten you more than once."

"And we're just as strong as them." Jake added, raising his claws. "Wanna see for yourself?"

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Vulkanus opened his mouth to speak, but before he could even utter a single word, a foot came out of nowhere and smashed into his chest, the force behind it causing the metal armour to cave in on itself as Vulkanus flew back with a scream towards a brick wall. However, before he could hit it, a navy blue blur past him a second before a pair of clasped hands struck his back, resulting in the armour caving in again as Vulkanus' flight path was altered to straight up into the sky.

"No taunts, no flashy entrances, and to top it off he stole our thunder. Where's his sense of flare?" Raimundo asked with mock exasperation as he watched the orange topped rocket take off.

"Hello, this is Gohan? Mr warrior race?" Jake responded amusedly. "He doesn't care for the fancy stuff. He thrives on brainless brute force."

"Don't let him hear you say that." Rai chuckled as an orange, black and blue blur crashed into the ground with a thunderous bang and creating a decently large crater.

Gohan landed softly just at the crater's edge as Vulkanus pulled himself haphazardly to his feet, a smirk crossing his face as metal plates fell from Vulkanus' suit and oil tube and short circuiting wires flopped out from every part.

"I don't recommend moving." Gohan taunted, getting an enraged growl in return. "If just one of those electrical sparks comes into contact with the leaking fuel, you'll go up like a bomb."

Vulkanus' face changed abruptly from angry to terrified as his body froze in place, his eyes transfixed on what remained of his left fist where oil was leaking only a centimetre away from sparks being released from his wrist.

"This just makes it all too easy." Rai smirked, cracking his knuckles as he jumped into the crater.

"Yeah, for me to blow you up." Vulkanus retorted. With that he jumped out of the suit, surprising all three boys, and kicked it from behind, rebounding away as it fell towards Raimundo. "See you in hell." He sneered as he ran for the hills.

"Wind!" Working on instinct, Rai threw his hands up and blew the malfunctioning suit into the sky before it could do any damage. It didn't prevent the explosion, but it did prevent any injuries, especially when Jake took off into the air and deflected the few pieces of debris that fell towards the civilian stragglers.

Meanwhile Gohan took off faster than the human eye could see and clotheslined the cackling Vulkanus, leaving him to smack into the ground with a choked gasp.

"Going somewhere pipsqueak?" Gohan smirked, leaning down and grabbing him by the arm. "Not without a police escort."

"Oh man, this is the most amusing thing I've ever seen." Rai laughed, his hands wrapped around his gut as he and Jake approached them, Jake turning back into his human form along the way. "This guy is even smaller than Omi and yet he has an even bigger head than him! He even has that 'I'm the toughest person you'll ever meet' attitude too."

Gohan just chuckled and grabbed Vulkanus' other arm, properly constraining him while Jake sat down and took off his shoe and bloodstained sock, inspecting the wound as the sound of approach police cars got steadily louder.

...

Back at Valour's Light, the dark smile grew steadily bigger on Albedo's face as more and more red marks appeared on a world map he'd brought up, each one representing a defence base he'd managed to hack into. There were so many already up there that it was almost impossible to see the continents they were marking.

"Almost...almost, there! The last one, Hahaha!" He cackled as the final red dot appeared. "This satellite and every military defence system on the planet is under my control. I guess I'll no longer be in need of this disguise." He stated, deactivating his little holographic device and returning to actual colouring. Shutting down the map, he activated the communication systems and sent a quick message out to space. When he got the confirmation, he waited just long enough to see the ships hastily approaching Earth on the scanners before redirecting his focus to the other systems he'd hacked before: every communication frequency on the planet.

...

"Why did we all come to this one again?" Rai asked, looking thoroughly bored leaning on a police car next to a patched up Jake while Gohan dealt with the statements and whatnot with the cops. "He was a weakling."

"To get it done quick so we all could be there when we find the one who made Kim, Danny and Roxas disappear." Jake answered absentmindedly. His eyes were focused into a frown as he watched a pair of cops at a nearby car. They'd been mumbling something about being nothing but a pickup crew a few seconds ago, but it was the fact that they'd just gone still and pale that caught his attention. _Something big must have just happened._ Jake thought worriedly, biting his lip. Sure enough, a second later one of them turned to the cop in charge.

"Mitch, there's a transmission on the radio from a guy who just said we're all about to die." He shouted, causing everyone in the area to snap their heads in his direction, each face either turning pale, shocked or frowning at the news. Not a second later, cops were turning their car radios on and up to maximum volume for all to hear.

"_Listen well all of you pathetic humans! My name is Albedo. I am from the great race known as the Galvan, though the form I am currently stuck in thanks to my Omnitrix is one I'm sure is more familiar to you."_

"Omnitrix? But there's only one of them and Ben has it." Gohan cried, turning to Rai and Jake for an explanation only for them to respond with a confused shrug. Wanting an answer, Gohan grabbed the others and flew off as fast as he could, ignoring their startled yelps. It only took him a few seconds to find a TV and what he saw made him stop in shock. On the screen, with what was clearly the bridge of Valour's Light in the background, was a guy who looked almost exactly like Ben. Except this guy had white hair, red eyes, a red jacket with black stripes where Ben's was white and the look on his face was more sinister than Ben could ever pull off.

"_I have already infiltrated the Valour Guardians after destroying four of them and left another two useless to anyone, and used it to hack in and take full control of every defence system on your primitive world. Now you have a choice: surrender and prepare for a life of slavery or die at the hands of the mighty Vilgax! Conqueror of ten worlds."_

It was at that moment that screams of pure terror simultaneously filled the air, forcing Gohan to throw his hands over his sensitive ears, dropping Jake and Raimundo in the process and forcing them to fly on their own power. For at that moment, the sky became filled with giant ships, flickers of light being the only warning of their arrival. All of them looked armed to the teeth and completely impenetrable.

"_Decide humans. You have but minutes." _With an evil laugh, Albedo disappeared from the screen and let everyone in a blind panic. As the number of ships in the sky only continued to grow, only one thought passed through Gohan's head.

_This is going to be a looooonnnngggg day._


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Roxas backed away fearfully, raising his hands protectively as Kim, Gwen and the fish men Ben and Benjamin walked slowly towards him, all of them giving him dark looks or smirks.

"Come on guys, that wasn't intentional, I promise." Roxas said hastily as they got closer. "I only meant to block the Ben duo's path, create a giant wave."

"Well, you did." Benjamin said lowly, Ripjaws' voice making him sound even scarier. "And now it's payback time."

"Eep!" Looking positively terrified, Roxas turned on the balls of his feet and ran as fast as he could towards the RV, much to the amusement of the others.

"Come on, let's go scare him some more." Ben chuckled, pointing towards the vehicle. However, before he could get more than three steps, the Omnitrix started flashing red and a second later, he was consumed by a flash of red and reverted to normal. "Oh man! He's not going to be afraid of me now."

"Neither is he." Roxas shouted, glaring up at the sky. Tensing, the others turned just in time to see a dark clothed, pale figure floating cross legged in the air before a ring of magic was released from his raised staff. The ring increased in size dramatically as it rapidly approached them and created a huge wave of its own.

"Everyone move!" Benjamin shouted, causing the group to scatter. However, only Gwen, who'd managed to grab Ben's body board and used it and a wind spell to take off into the air, was able to avoid the assault, the other three being blown straight off their feet with garbled gasps and cries for help. The spell didn't stop there however, as the ring followed the wave it created to the shore and struck the three again just as the wave tossed them onto dry land. Before they could even move, the sand that was blown onto them by the ring's approach turned to stone, leaving only their heads free.

"Argh! What a spell." Kim groaned painfully, struggling to turn her head towards the approaching enemy. "I haven't even seen Lucky Girl do anything nearly as impressive. Who is he?"

"The world's most dangerous sorcerer." Gwen said lowly, her expression conveying an interesting mix of ferocity and fear. "And the man with the Archamada Book of Spells. Hex."

"That explains how he managed to acquire a spell that could affect both the water and the earth." Roxas gulped, summoning both of his Keyblades. "Future you told me that that book is the Ultimate book of sorcery. There's only one other book of magic as great as that one and no other can compare to them. If he's using spells from that, then we're screwed."

Floating almost lazily, Hex landed lightly on the sand, moving his book from his lap to a small bag connected to his belt at his side as he stood up. Scanning the group around him, he smirked at the three trapped on the ground, ignored the old man running from the RV and focused his gaze squarely on Roxas.

"You are the one with the unique magic." Hex stated scanning him over with critical eyes. "Strange. Definitely unique, and powerful, but not even close to what I sensed before. Tell me boy, who used the immense power that brought you to this realm?"

"That was a freak accident that involved a sorceress in the future and a powerful piece of alien tech. The sources are beyond your reach." Benjamin shouted angrily before Roxas could respond. "Leave this place Hex, and don't come back."

"Now why would I listen to a fish out of water?" Hex smirked, letting it grow larger as he noticed Ripjaws' air was running short. "You'll be dead very soon, so if I were you I'd stop talking. Besides, I have other business with the sorcerer too." He added raising his staff at the Keybearer, yellow energy gathering in its mouth. "Your magic is different from any I've ever sensed before. Nor have I ever seen someone cast a spell that slowed down time, if only within a set range. I want to know all of your secrets."

"If you think you're going to learn anything from me then you have a few screws loose." Roxas growled, raising his blades. "But I will give you a taste of what I've got. Light!"

Hex was quick to respond to the nine light javelins flying his way, creating a yellow force field himself, and grunted as the power behind the attack still managed to push him back two feet and back into the shallow water. The spell was much stronger than he expected and it was a challenge to keep his shield up.

"Aquata Risa Spackwata!" As Gwen chanted, a blue glow appeared on the water's surface around Hex's feet before it sprang up like a huge geyser, surprising the dark sorcerer so much that his force field dissipated.

Taking advantage of his unbalanced position, Roxas ran straight at him as fast as he could, his Keyblades glowing with light magic. The magic grew brighter and stronger before he thrust his Keyblades forward, pointing them right at Hex's chest, leapt forward and was consumed by the magic, streaking like a white comet at higher speeds than anyone could hope to run.

However, the light attracted Hex's attention and due to the large distance between them, he was able to levitate out of the way before being hit. Without any solid to strike, Roxas ploughed right into a wave, creating a very large explosion of water.

"An impressive trick, I must admit." Hex commented as Roxas pulled his upper body back out of the water, choking on water, smirking smugly at the boy. "Mixing magic with your physical strength and weapons in such a way is a rare find, but it hides nothing of your intention. At such a distance, it is child's play for a master magician to avoid it."

"Not...entirely true you night of the living dead reject." Roxas snapped between breaths. "I did intend to hit you, but that wasn't my only intention. You've failed to see the other."

"And what would that be?" Hex asked confidently, his senses detecting no other magic aside from Gwen's.

"Our friends managed to free us." Hex's eyes widened as Ripjaws burst from the water and up passed even his level of altitude before he spun in the air and slammed his tail into Hex's torso, sending him sailing back towards the dry sand with a pained gasp.

Grunting as he picked himself up from the small crater he'd created in the sand, Hex looked back to where the others had been trapped just in time to see Max putting what looked like a wrench with a small laser coming from it away while Danny put his hand through the stone holding Kim and pulled her out effortlessly.

"Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this." Kim stated, smirking darkly at Hex as she, Gwen and Danny approached him, each with their fists clenched and ready. "No one seals us in stone and gets away with it."

"Aw man! The stupid watch is still in the red. I'm useless." Ben whined, smacking the Omnitrix in frustration.

"It doesn't matter, we can handle this guy just fine on our own." Danny responded as his hands glowed green.

But before anyone could make even the smallest movement, green laser beams simultaneously struck Hex and Danny, as well as Benjamin and Roxas just as they made back to the shore, while strange, black ropes were lassoed around Kim, Gwen, Max and Ben and tugged them to the ground with shocked cries.

"Didn't we just get out of confinement?" Kim cried exasperatedly, struggling as hard as she could. However, despite the rope looking thin and frail, it refused to snap.

"Don't bother girl." Looking up, Kim followed the snarling voice to an overly bulky man clad in a very familiar green ninja garbs. However, this guy carried a lot more weapons and gave off a much more menacing air. "That's made of sphinx hair. It suppresses magic and is nearly impossible to break."

"Um, I think we're in trouble." Ben cried, panicking as another Huntsman tied the other side of his rope around Ben's feet. "Hey, let me go!"

"Quiet boy!" Another snarled, dragging a groaning Danny unceremoniously across the ground towards them via another sphinx hair rope, two more tying up Benjamin and Roxas behind him. "We don't listen to magical freaks like you, we slay them."

"And with all of your magic suppressed, slaying you will be easy." The Huntsmaster stated triumphantly, aiming a laser at Hex. "We'll start with this new one."

Hex however, enraged as he was, had other plans.

"Eterla Morbulous!" At Hex's spell, the laser exploded and the outburst of raw power from it sent the Huntsmaster careening into the sand dunes, screaming loudly and painfully all the way. Growling, Hex turned to the ten elite Huntsmen, his staff pointed right at them and their guns and bazookas pointed at him.

Taking advantage of the distraction again, Danny repeated his performance and phased through the rope. Placing his hands together, he prepared an ecto blast, but his movements caught the attention of one of the Huntsmen.

"Look out, freed prisoner." He growled, whipping his bazooka around and firing a large, green energy blast at the same time Danny shot his own beam, cancelling each others' out. "How did you get free?" He snarled, preparing to take another shot.

"My powers are ectoplasmic, not magical." Danny retorted, quickly throwing up an ecto shield as two lasers came his way. "And I'm not the only one to draw power from a non-magical source." He added, catching Benjamin's movements in the corner of his eye. At that moment, Benjamin's hand made it to the centre of his chest and the Omnitrix was quick to respond with a flash of green light.

"Spidermonkey!" The smaller form found it easy to free himself from the rope, though his arms got tangled for a few seconds. Before the end of the rope had even reached the ground again, Benjamin smirked and shot a spider web at their enemies. The Huntsmen tried shooting it out of the air, but the attack was so unexpected and fast that all of their attempts went harmlessly through the holes and hit Danny's shield and the web struck home, ensnaring the Huntsmaster, all of his elites and Hex , slamming them into a pileup against a tree trunk. "Why don't you guys just stick around for a while?" Benjamin joked, jumping up and down as he laughed merrily.

"That alien is too much like my Ben." Gwen groaned softly as Danny placed his hand on her and turned her intangible, causing the ropes to fall from her body. "Weird sense of humor and a totally gross weapon of choice."

"Hey, don't bag me! Besides, that guy just got them all in one shot. He's totally cool." Ben responded excitedly as the ropes were removed from him and Kim, jumping to his feet as Danny moved on to Roxas and Max. "I can't wait to get that one."

Any response was cut off as a flash of yellow blew the web and every Huntsman away from the tree, leaving Hex standing there, upright and his eyes glowing with yellow magic in his rage.

"Do you think a simple cobweb can stop me?" He yelled, thrusting his staff up again. "Tempestus!" Huge streams of water surged from the sea, either striking everyone but Hex or forcing them to dodge away from everyone else before gathering in a large area around Hex, Roxas and Ben, turning into walls of rapidly moving water that ensured that anyone who hit a wall would go up and away from those trapped within.

"You think that will keep me away?" Danny shouted smugly, taking off into the air and over the wall. However, just as he was able to see within the circular battlefield, a yellow beam burst from Hex's staff and struck home right on his chest.

"Argh!" Danny screamed as he crashed into the ground, throwing sand everywhere. Grunting, he pulled himself to his feet and immediately had to go intangible to avoid a high tech mace. "Has anyone else noticed that this is getting more and more difficult?"

"Oh yeah." Kim answered, jumping into a sliding kick as she simultaneously attempted to dodge one Huntsman's laser and attack another, only managing the former as the second guy leapt expertly out of the way at the last minute. Quickly whipping out a pair of sais, he went to impale Kim with one and sink the other into her head only for her to knock his lower hand higher up with her arm and catch both of his wrists with her legs. Using all of her strength and weight, she pulled herself into a backward roll and pulled the guy along with her, smacking him into the ground.

However, he was quick to recover, ignoring all the pain she'd caused, and got back to his feet while her original antagonist prevented Kim from attack him, expertly swinging nunchucks and forcing her to back away. Despite her quick reflexes and maneuverability, the nunchucks made plenty of accurate landings that left her crying out in pain as welts quickly formed on her arms and legs. The long the attacks went on, the more her muscles hesitated to do what she asked of them and the landing blows became much more common, leaving Kim watery eyed before the sai guy even joined back in.

Seeing her situation, Benjamin leapt into a flying kick and landed his foot right on the guys chest while simultaneously slinging a web into the face of the other Huntsman coming up to his left. Pushing off his foe's chest, he leapt into the air again, pushing the ninja into the ground harder as he flew towards Kim. Slinging his tail forward, he shot a web string at the nunchucks before whipping his tail and the thread back, ripping the weapons from the surprised Huntsman's hands. The split second distraction and loss of his weapons was all Kim needed and she instantly lasted out with a kick to the stomach. The sai guy leaped and performed a mid-air flip over Kim with the intent of slashing straight through her shoulders along the way, however, taking in the airborne fighters, Kim smirked at Benjamin and ducked. Spidermonkey easily landed on her back and the second he did, Kim ripped herself upright again, propelling Benjamin right at his target. The sai guy's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as four arms shot at him, two grabbing his wrists and the other two unleashing a barrage of punches on his head, chest and shoulders. Meanwhile, Kim continued her own assault with an open palm across the face with enough forced to knock the hard mask protecting his head away before finishing with her best uppercut to his jaw. By the time their attacks were done, Kim and Benjamin were the only ones still standing and quickly leapt away as Benjamin's original targets lashed out furiously at them in place of their fallen friends.

"Saphirius Expectorium Perpetua!" Gwen's glowing hands released a fierce looking whirlwind at another two Huntsmen, but before the winds could reach them, they activated the bow setting on their staffs and shot green energy arrows straight at her. While they jumped into the whirlwind when it reached them and expertly kept themselves upright, the arrows cut straight through it like it wasn't there.

"AAHH!" Gwen screamed, unable to act before she'd be hit. However, nothing stopped Max as he dived straight at her and pushed her safely to the ground, narrowly avoiding the energy arrows, before he jumped right back up, whipping out a small laser gun faster than anyone could see.

"How about a taste of your own medicine?" He growled, firing at the two as they charged in for their newt assault and successfully blew the staffs clean out of their hands. Unfortunately, he wasn't prepared for the explosion behind him, courtesy of the two that had been chasing him before.

"Argh!" He screamed as the force of it blew him forward, flames burning his back, before crashing into the sand with a belly flop. Though he twitched and groaned, he showed no signs of being capable of rising.

"No, Grampa! You gotta get up." Gwen screamed, ignoring her own burnt arm as she ran to his side. As she reached him the movement in the corner of her eye alerted her to the four ninjas doing the same thing, daggers and high tech lasers in hand and targeting. "Grampa, we're in real trouble here." She shouted, becoming consumed with panic, but all Max managed to do was groan, his hands shaking as he tried to rise before they just gave out. Seeing the laser barrels about to fire, Gwen ignored her first reaction to scream and raised her hands, the blue glow returning.

"Vortress Nebulae!" The force field appeared just as the Huntsmen fired and successfully protected Gwen and Max from the blasts. However, the lasers were made to combat magic and the fact was made obvious as Gwen groaned and the force field flickered for a second after the impact.

"Great, I won't be able to handle this for long." Gwen muttered worriedly, scrunching up her face in concentration as the two lasers hit again while a guy with a dagger and the other with a metal ball on a chain lashed at her from the other side. "What do I do?" She cried, staring desperately down at Max. "How can I stop people who are highly trained in combating magic?"

"By getting a little help." Danny called cockily, pointing his fingers like guns at the laser shooters. Small lasers shot from his fingers and blasted the guns right out of their hands. He then turned invisible and flew behind the close range fighters and overshadowed the ball and chain wielding one. Spinning the chain as fast as he could, Danny slugged the ball into the dagger bearing guy's gut. The poor victim dropped like a pile of bricks, his light armour doing nothing to protect him from the combined strength of his ally and Danny behind the metal weapon.

"I guess he got too much iron in his diet." Danny smirked as he turned to the other two charging at him and yet a third pair firing energy arrows from where he'd been fighting before. Danny just grinned and exited the body as it was blasted by the other Huntsmen. Raising his arms, he swept them to the sides, releasing a wave of blue, icy energy at the four of them, only for them to leap over or roll under it. Surprised by the expert evasion, he was caught off guard by the first to reach him.

"Argh!" A powerful jab with a green glowing staff to his right collarbone was his reward, sending him spinning to the ground and completely helpless as the other three leapt at him, two preparing energy arrows and the other raising a very nasty looking, jagged toothed sword. Looking up from his spot on the ground, Danny's eyes grew as large as dinner plates as they conveyed pure terror.

"Seco Sofom!" The Huntsmen gasped as their weapons suddenly glowed blue and ripped themselves from their owners' hands. The staffs spun around before their masters and released their arrows straight into the Huntsmen's chests while the sword smashed it's blunt side into its owner's head.

"That'll teach you not to play with knives." Gwen taunted, giving the three a confident smirk. However, it quickly disappeared as all three rose to their feet again, their growls and posture overflowing with rage. Suddenly very scared, Gwen took a step back towards her grandfather and summoned her shield again while Danny sweep kicked the man who'd been shot by his allies as he tried to get back to his feet.

"Man, these guys just don't quit." Danny growled, taking into the air. Checking the other side of the battlefield, he noticed that Kim and Benjamin were having the same problem, even the two that had been down for a while were rising back to their feet. "Did these guys learn how to turn off their ability to feel pain or something?"

...

Within the wall of water, things weren't going much better. Roxas was definitely the more powerful spell caster of the two and his physical capabilities were far superior to Hex's, but Hex possessed far greater knowledge in magic and spells. In addition, Roxas had one weakness that Hex was quite happy to exploit: the defenseless ten year old Ben.

"WHOA!" Ben screamed as an invisible force suddenly tugged him towards Hex. "Help me ROXAS!"

Roxas, focusing his magic through Oblivion, gasped as Ben flew between him and Hex and immediately pulled his magic back. He charged toward the distressed kid, but water shot from the walls and wrapped around his legs, prohibiting his movement. "No, Ben! Let him go you coward." Roxas growled venomously, his knuckles going white around his blades.

"Now why would I do that?" Hex sneered, grabbing the back of Ben's neck and leaving the boy screaming. "This brat has foiled my plans more than once, so I'm very happy to kill him, and he appears to be very important to you. That makes him perfect for getting what I want from you." Hex's staff came to life as he talked and was pointed right at Ben's temple for emphasis. "Tell me about your magic and every spell you know, or I shall destroy him."

"My spells and knowledge are useless to you." Roxas shouted, letting his Keyblades disappear. "You're incapable of using them."

"Do not take me for a pathetic magician." Hex yelled, tightening his grip on Ben threateningly. "I am a master magician, capable of any spell."

"My power is pure light magic." Roxas snapped, getting a raised eyebrow from Hex. "No one can use light magic unless they are master sorcerers who have trained for decades with a very strong light dominating their hearts or one of the seven princesses. Besides mine and my friends' unique cases, Keyblade bearers are the only exceptions, and even then it's only the light magic of the weapon and not spells. Forces of darkness can never use light magic."

"The power of light?" Hex scowled, not liking what he was hearing. "Such power is supposed to be harmless. How can what you possess possibly be holy magic?"

"Light must be able to defend itself from darkness or it would succumb to it." Roxas replied, closing his fist so Hex wouldn't see the light gathering in his palm.

"If that is the case, and yours powers are of magic a dark being cannot wield," Hex snarled, looking Roxas right in the eye. "Then I have no more use for the boy."

"AAH-uh." Ben's scream was cut off as Hex's hand tightened so much it cut off his breathing. Meanwhile, content with strangling the ten year old hero, Hex aimed his staff at the fifteen year old one.

That was more than enough for Roxas and his hand shot up at a speed even Gohan would be proud of. "SLOW!" The flash of light occurred again, this time much stronger then when he stumbled onto the spell, and sent everyone on the beach into slow motion. Before the flash even faded, Roxas had already summoned oblivion and a second later, the white aura around it was stunning. Again moving with greater speed than any normal person could ever hope to achieve, he flipped the blade upside down and struck the ground. "Clear Light!"

The spell unleashed an enormous amount of light from the Keyblade that spread throughout the ground. The water holding him in place was completely blown away from him as the light past his feet and spread to the wall of water. Upon reaching the wall, for columns of light, as thick as castle pillars, shot up from equal distance from each other before pulsing and exploding, neutralising the magic holding the water and blowing the liquid away. Freed from all restraints, Roxas ran as fast as he could towards Hex and the still very slowly struggling Ben, relieved that the boy was in slow motion too. If he weren't he'd be dead by now.

Reaching them just as they started speeding up again, he slammed Oblivion into the staff, sending it spiraling away, before spinning and ploughing his elbow into Hex's face.

Screaming in pain fell back to the ground, releasing Ben in the process who fell into Roxas' waiting arms.

"Th-thanks." Ben gasped, rubbing his throat as he leaned on Roxas' chest, breathing deeply. Just as he was calming down, Roxas' grip on him altered and he pulled the kid back to avoid the claw shaped end of a blue, mechanical staff.

"Power such as yours cannot be allowed to exist." The Huntsmaster roared, taking another swing. Roxas quickly responded by leaping onto the staff, just below the glowing claw end, and leaped into a back flip, putting a good couple of meters between the heroes and the leader of a dark clan. In all the commotion, Ben almost didn't notice the chime of the Omnitrix as the faceplate changed from red to green.

"Huh? YES!" Ben cheered activating the controls. "Time for Four Arms to kick some... Aw man!" slapping the controls back down as Four Arms' picture appeared, the green flash took place, but a very different form appeared in Four Arms' place. To be specific, one that looked like a cross between a blob and a circuit board. "Upgrade? What good is he here?" He asked irritably.

"Figure it out fast." Roxas grunted, parrying the Huntsmaster's staff with Oblivion as Hex rose back to his feet. "I'm gonna need help." Leaning his body weight onto his blade, Roxas forced the Huntsmaster back a step before using the force of his attack to spin and horizontally slash at the Huntsmaster, leaving a large cut in his chest armour.

"Ok, this might work." Ben stated, the ring on is head frowning. Looking straight at the Huntsmaster as he charged at Roxas, he released a powerful yellowish green beam that struck the dark hunter right in his exposed chest.

"AARRGGHH!" The raw power of the beam proved to be far too much for him as it blew him away, dropping his staff in the process, screaming in agony until colliding with a tree just off of the beach, the blast blowing clear through it and sending it to the ground with the unconscious Huntsmaster.

"Nice sho-"

"Reanima Dinamica!" Before Roxas could even finish his compliment, sparks exploded from all over his body.

"AAARRRGGGHHH!" His blood curdling scream sent everyone into a split second standstill as he fell limply to the ground, his arms wrapped protectively around his torso as his whole body smoked and shook, his eyes clenched shut and the look of pure agony clear as day on his face.

"A split second is all I really need." Hex smirked, raising his glowing staff as the Huntsmen continued their attack, forcing the other heroes to stay away. "Now it's time for you to die."

_I've gotta save him._ Ben thought desperately, running as fast as he could as Hex gathered power for an especially powerful spell. He fired another beam at Hex, but the sorcerer merely raised his hand and blocked it with an energy shield before beginning to chant. _Oh man, it's too late! There's only one way to save him now._ Shoving his foot onto the ground, he made a quick change in direction and leapt in to the air towards Roxas. _Even if this costs me my life._

"Tempestus Impaetus!" Benjamin, Danny, Kim and Gwen watched in horror as a lightning bolt shot straight down from the sky, aiming directly for Roxas. However, right before it hit home, Upgrade's warping form appeared over him, shaping himself into a dome and taking the shot himself.

...

"NO, BEN!" Gwen screamed, tears falling from her eyes as she took off towards him. But before she could make it three feet, a firm hand pulled her back.

"NO, LET ME GO, HE'S HURT, I'VE GOT TO HELP HIM!" She screamed, fighting desperately against Danny's grip. However, it proved completely futile.

"No, your Grampa need you more." Danny replied, throwing an ecto shield as three Huntsmen tried to impale them. "Besides, Ben is fine."

"How could you possibly think that?" Gwen snapped, whipping her face to his angrily. "You saw him take the lightning bolt and the only movement he's made since is twitching, like he's in pain."

"That's how I know." Danny answered as he pointed across the battlefield. Gwen looked up and gaped openly as Spidermonkey planted one Huntsman's head into the sand with his foot before jumping into a back flip, hitting the Omnitrix as he landed again and transforming in a flash of light.

"Echo Echo!"

"If past Ben was hurt, future Ben would disappear." Danny stated as Gwen physically calmed down. "Now protect Max while Echo Echo and I finish these guys off."

Taking a deep breath, Gwen nodded and re-erected her shield, leaving Danny free to take to the sky.

"What do you say to a little tune?" Echo Echo's mechanical voice asked, gathering everyone's, minus the three fighting further off, attention before leaving the bulk of them wide eyed as he multiplied until there were thirty of him. Opening their mouths, the Echo Echos only waited long enough for Danny to motion Gwen to cover her ears before unleashing his sonic scream. The Huntsmen screamed themselves as they were forcefully and painfully knocked of their feet by the sound alone, all of them throwing their hands up to their ears. Stunned, groaning and bearing sever migraines that they couldn't ignore, they failed to notice as the horde of Echo Echo had surrounded them, making a perfect circle.

"Time for... The echo chamber." Two stated, one completing the other's sentence as they took a deep breath.

"What do you say we amp it up to the next level?" Danny interrupted, getting curious stares from the Echo Echo as he created three clones of himself before the four of them landed at different points in the circle. "How about a wail chamber?"

Benjamin gave him a smirk and nodded before returning to the recovered Huntsmen. Taking deep breaths, every copy of Benjamin and Danny screamed, the invisible sound waves enhancing the power of the eerie, green ones as they struck home. Weapons were blown away and shattered under the immense power and their owners quickly fell to the ground, not even given the time needed to scream. After a few seconds, the sound attack ended, all of the clones disappearing as they noticed that all of their opponents had lost consciousness.

"Um, I hope we didn't just kill them." Danny muttered nervously, scratching his head. "That might have been too much."

"They're alive, I can feel the vibrations of their breathing." Benjamin responded, looking relieved himself. "Any longer though and that would have killed them."

"Well, I'll tie these guys up, you go check on Ben junior and Roxas." Danny stated, grabbing some of the sphinx hair rope. Nodding, Benjamin took off towards where the last battle was still going on.

...

"How foolish. Now I can destroy you both." Hex sneered, raising his staff one last time. "Farewell." A powerful yellow beam straight for the heroes as Hex laughed, promising death upon impact. But much to Hex's surprise, before it could get close to them, Ben shot back up to his feet in his usual bipedal form and fired a beam of his own, one much more powerful than Upgrade was normally capable of on his own. The beams collided in mid air, clashing at a standstill for a couple of seconds before Upgrade's beam overtook Hex's with little resistance.

"What?" Hex cried, his eyes wide in fear as he cut off his attack and leaped into the air, narrowly avoiding the beam. "How is he able to even move? That lightning bolt should have left him at least on the brink of death."

"I'm part machine." Ben shouted cockily, his body relaxing from its previously spasms as he stared up at Hex. "All that lightning bolt did was give me a sudden boost of power that came in real handy a few seconds ago."

"You little pest." Hex growled, throwing out his hand, "Prepare to burn. Berdi – ARGH!"

Before he could complete the spell, a flash of red and green blew by behind him as something metallic struck his back and sent a surge of painful energy into his back. The blow was more than sufficient and resulted in him fall face first into the sand. Pulling himself hesitantly up onto all fours, Hex coughed up sand as he turned to the where his attacker had landed to find Kim preparing for her next attack, the Huntsmaster's staff in hand.

"When fighting alone in a three way battle, you really need to know how to watch your back." Kim taunted, eliciting a growl and venomous glare from Hex. "What's the matter? Can't handle the truth?"

"Let's give him something else he can't handle." Ben called as he leapt towards Kim. Upon reaching her, his form reshaped and became more serpentine before touching and fusing with the staff. Kim watched in amazement as the staff thickened twofold and turned black, decorated by the green circuit board patterns that cover Upgrade's back. The claw grew larger and the mini spikes on the inside became much more defined. Finally, what looked like a laser barrel grew out from the base of the claw, one also appearing at the opposite end of the staff.

"Now this is what I call a weapon." Kim grinned confidently, the extra weight of the staff not hindering her movements at all as she adjusted it to attack.

"And with all of its anti-magic weaponry amplified by me, it's the ultimate weapon for fighting Hex." Ben boasted, the circle from Upgrade's face flashing merrily just below the claw.

"No weapon will ever be enough to stop me." Hex screamed furiously, raising hid hands. "Terra Tremo Eradiko!" Aiming his palms at the ground, Hex released his magic blew up the rocks below the sand, sending an unknown amount of sharp, pointy debris at Kim.

Unphased, she charged straight at it, twirling the staff to knock the potentially lethal projectiles away, Ben releasing a rapid fire from both barrels to protect Kim from what she couldn't hit.

"Impossible!" Hex cried as Kim passed the last of the flying debris with no more injuries than she started with, seeming to be ignoring even them as she sped up. "She has no power, how could she survive that? No mere human could with just a thin pole for protection."

"Clearly, you haven't met a 'mere human' like me." Kim retorted as she leapt into the air. Clasping the Ben-staff firmly in her hands, she swung the brightly glowing claw straight down at Hex's head.

"I won't fall so easily!" Hex growled, throwing a yellow shield around himself. It managed to protect him just fine, but the power of the staff proved to be too much for his reserves as if shattered under the pressure. Twisting around in the air, Kim swung the staff in a diagonal arch Hex's completely exposed back.

"Galeus Disruptus!" At Hex's panicked scream, a fierce wind burst from his body, blowing Kim away. However, refusing to be stopped, Kim used the wind to spin her body like a spinning top at high speeds before tossing Ben like a javelin. With the momentum of her movement combined with her high than average strength and a rocket like burst of energy from the back barrel, the staff broke through and above the wind before beginning its decent, straight at Hex.

"No escape this time." Ben stated viciously, using the back barrel to fire and energy burst to enhance his speed while simultaneously making the whole staff glow with green energy. By the time Hex noticed him, he could do no more than openly and fearfully gape at Ben before he was struck with an explosive bang, throwing sand sky high. Before even the sand settled, a beeping came from the crash point, followed by a red flash, moments before a disoriented Ben walked out into view, Kim smiling in relief from where she landed painfully on her already injured arm. However, she and the others slowly approaching, Gwen and Danny, widened their eyes in horror as another, much bigger form stumbled forth, his glowing yellow hand pointing to the sky while the other held his reopened book.

"I had enough! Prepare for the most destructive spell I know. The hurricane spell." Hex yelled before looking to the sky. "Rava Eelartas Galla-"

"Don't think so!" Two identical, mechanical voices shouted as storm clouds, lightning and wind began gathering above where they stood. Before Hex could finish his spell, a pair of Echo Echo jumped up from behind him and flung a rope around Hex. Holding either end, they each created two more copies of themselves and pulled back, bringing a surprised Hex to the ground and quickly tying him up as the clouds disappeared.

"Gallametroy! Gallametroy!" Hex shouted, panicking as the clouds only continued to dissipate, taking the elements with them. "What is going on? Why isn't my spell working?"

"Sheesh, learn to pay attention." An Echo Echo sighed exasperatedly.

"You're tied in sphinx hair." Stated another.

"And it blocks magic." A third one added before the six became one again and changed back into Benjamin. "So you're not going anywhere."

"But we are." Danny said happily, snatching the Archamada Book of Spells from Hex, ignoring his protests. "I mean, when Roxas is fit enough to cast the spell."

"But he's really hurt." Ben said worriedly, looking back to see his older self carefully picking the blond up. "I don't think he'll be ready to move for a while."

"Actually, it shouldn't take him that long to get ready." Benjamin grinned, bringing confused looks from everyone. Not even his team mates had any idea what he was talking about.

"Benjamin, he looks really bad. Worse than me, that's for sure." Kim said slowly, rubbing what looked like a broken arm. "How could he possibly be ready any time soon without Namine here to heal him?"

"You'll see." Benjamin grinned before looking down at Roxas as the blonde opened his pained eyes. "Roxas, do your thing." Roxas stared up at Ben's eyes for a moment, looking a little confused. There was no doubt in Ben's mind that was because he was drunk on pain. However, after a moment, it changed to a look of realisation and he slowly brought his hand to his chest.

"Curaga!" The word could almost have been mistaken for a groan as he said it, but the white surge of magic covering his body couldn't be mistaken by anyone who had seen Namine's healing abilities before. It didn't last nearly as long as Namine's did, nor did it seem nearly as effective, but when the spell was completed, Roxas' wounds were much smaller and paler, close to being fully healed, but still far enough that they'd be sore and hinder some movement. Smiling proudly, Benjamin set Roxas down, but kept one of Roxas' arms around his shoulders to help support him.

"Since when can you heal?" Danny asked, gaping openly at the blond, Kim duplicating his look.

"I found a spell book on light magic in the Null Void and gave it to him when he pulled me out a few weeks back." Benjamin answered for him. "He's learnt more than one spell from that book"

"Can it heal my arm?" Kim asked, biting her lip in pain as she moved it.

"Not entirely." Roxas said softly, having Benjamin help him lean down and placing his hand on the injure limb. "The spell's only meant for small wounds. But I can reduce the damage of larger ones. Curaga!" Again, his magic flashed and covered Kim's body. She almost immediately relaxed as his magic soothed her pain, not only on her broken arm, but everywhere else as her other wounds completely healed. When the spell had run its course, the only pain left was in her arm and it was significantly less.

"Thanks Roxas." Kim sighed with relief as she rose to her feet. Roxas just smiled before having Benjamin take him to where Max was still lying on the ground.

"Let's see, an animation spell, a transfiguration spell, a spell for a firestorm, ah, here we are." Danny cheered, showing everyone the page he'd found in the book. "A time travel spell."

"Let's see." Gwen said, taking the book. "It says here that we need three ceremonial candles in a triangle for the spell. I think my scented candles in the RV will do it." Handing the book back, she ran towards the RV.

"I guess it's time to say goodbye." Ben said softly, staring sadly up at the four teens as Benjamin, Roxas and Max rejoined the group.

"Yep, plenty of people will go nuts trying to find us in our own time if we don't get back." Danny answered with a shrug.

"And Gwen probably needs healing." Roxas added, refusing to let the other possibility cross his mind.

"Well, at least I got to see that I'm going to make some totally awesome friends." Ben grinned, looking over each of them in turn. "And I know that even normal humans can become as great as super heroes now." He added, giving Kim a bright smile, which she returned. Turning to Benjamin, he took a deep breath before looking him right in the eye. "And I know that I'll grow into someone to be proud of."

"You're already closer than you think." Benjamin replied, smiling proudly down at him. "You showed true selflessness and bravery when you risked yourself for Roxas. Keep those traits and you won't ever go wrong." The smile that crossed Ben's face at that was one of shock as he nodded, promising to keep that in mind.

"I got the candles." Gwen called, lighting them and setting them down into a large triangle as she reached the group. Stepping back to observe her work, she nodded in satisfaction before turning her gaze back to the group, focusing on Roxas in particular. "Are you ready?"

Nodding, Roxas took a few steps forward, with Benjamin's help, and took the book from Danny. He briefly scanned the page, nodding as he got the gist of the spell before turning to Gwen.

"Give me a hand Gwen? I'm not sure I'm still strong enough to cast such a powerful spell." He asked, carefully lowering himself into a sitting position, holding the book out from his chest. Nodding, Gwen took a seat next to him, placing one of her glowing blue hands over his white glowing one. "Leave the time and place to me. Just focus your power into the spell."

Gwen nodded as they both stared down at the page. As one, they began to chant.

"Quis quandum era maflictus, iem feachus mas redentegero, quis venit pro mas nesquam essei!" In centre of the triangle of candles, vibrant blue and white magic swirled like a whirlpool before forming a triangular portal that looked far more impressive than Roxas' usual, pure white tunnels.

"Goodbye young ones. Stay safe." Max said solemnly, looking on the group with pride. "Make the future a place worth living in."

"Make sure we have what it takes to do it." Benjamin replied, hugging his grandfather. "Take care Grampa, Gwen and mini me." Messing up his younger self's hair, he gave the trio one last fond look and stepped into the portal.

"Sorry for causing you trouble." Danny smiled sheepishly as he headed towards the portal.

"And thanks for helping us through this little experience." Kim added gratefully from Danny's side. With a smile and a wave, they walked through the portal and out of sight.

"I guess this is yours now." Roxas stated, offering the book to Gwen. However, the redhead ten year old just shook her head and gently pushed it back to his chest.

"Give it to me in the future. That way, we ensure that Hex doesn't get his hands on it again." She said firmly. Smiling, Roxas gave her an understanding nod and tried to get up, only for Max to help him when his limbs started shaking. Smiling appreciatively, he let Max support him to the portal and dived through it a moment before it closed.

Staring at where the portal had been moments ago, the three remaining behind remained in silence as they thought about what the day had shown them. They had been given a glimpse into both Ben and Gwen's future, though one more than other, and it promised greatness, both as heroes and as people. Now, the only thing crossing their minds was the day that they'd meet these friends again and being ready for when that day comes.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Well, is there anything?" Gohan asked lowly, already confident that he knew the answer. Just as expected, the officer sighed as he dropped his car radio's microphone.

"We've still got our battleships, planes and tanks, but other than that, all we've got to work with is useless hand weapons."

"So only machines that work independently from base computers." Gohan sighed, rubbing his temples. "And that's enough for them. Tanks and battleships won't be able to touch the enemy and there's no way a jet a strong enough weapon to do any real damage to those ships."

"Their missiles probably could. But the jets will be blown out of the sky before they could do anything." Jake contributed, staring gravely into the air.

"The jets and warships might still be useful though." Rai muttered, resting his chin on his hand and frowning in thought as everyone else turned to him with raised eyebrows, wanting an explanation. When he turned to face them, Jake was a little unnerved that his most frequent partner in Guardian missions wasn't wearing his cocky smile. "The three of us have the best chance at doing damage, and other meta humans will no doubt fight back too."

"But there's far too many ships to take them on." Jake exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air for emphasis.

"True, that's where the military comes in." Rai nodded grimly, hesitating before continuing. "If every jet and ship we can get moving were to attack, it would distract the ships and possibly do some damage."

"And since we're smaller and harder to detect, we'd have a better shot at doing some real damage without every ship suddenly firing on us." Gohan continued as realisation dawned on him, getting a nod from Raimundo.

"But the biggest problem is that if we go about with this plan, large numbers are people are going to die." Rai added sadly. "And we probably will too."

"We've all gone into battle knowing that could happen before." Jake stated firmly, transforming in a flash of fire. "If there's even the slightest chance we can save the Earth, I'm willing to die trying."

"The military will already be jumping into action with everything they've got." The officer added, fingering his gun. "Those brave men and women feel the same way the dragon does. Hell, if I thought that it'd do any good, I'd aim my gun up at the sky."

"You have your own job." Gohan sighed, giving him a firm look. "You have to get any and all civilians as far away as possible. If we manage anything, debris will be flying down everywhere."

"Right. YOU HEARD HIM MEN! GET EVERYONE AWAY NOW!" The officer only stayed put long enough to inform the station of the required action before joining his men in rounding everyone up, leaving only the three teenage heroes where they stood.

"Well, it's been a pleasure working with you guys." Rai said solemnly, giving the others a small grin.

"Don't count us out yet." Gohan responded, giving Rai a confident smirk in return. "Blow as many ships up along the way as possible, but try to find the one bearing this Vilgax guy. If we find him, we may be able to force him to end the invasion."

"Right. Hit 'em hard, hit 'em fast and find their boss. Don't say die, just fight and fly." Jake shouted enthusiastically just as the first group of jets flew overhead. Taking that as their queue, they simultaneously took off into the air.

As predicted, the jets weren't able to do much. They kept a number of ships busy as they evaded the near constant laser fire and their missiles did manage to rock the enemy and leave a few holes in their ships, but it took multiple lucky shots from a least four jets to send even one invading ship down and even the best pilots could only survive the constant assault for so long before they were blown out of the sky.

"CREST OF THE CONDOR! BLADE OF THE NEBULA! SWORD OF THE STORM, WIND!" Pointing his blades out to his sides and spinning as fast as he could, Raimundo combined his power with all three magical items and created a tornado big enough to ensnare one of the invading warships. The ship never stopped firing its lasers as it was spun around and around so it was child's play for Raimundo to have it shoot down every other ship around it before tossing it at another, sending both crashing towards the ground.

Jake chose to take a different approach. Slinking through the enemy's fire, he flew right up the ship's lasers and breathed fire right into the opening they came from, blowing up the power source and everything it was connected to before flying off just as another ship prepared to fire on him, letting it do the rest for him.

Gohan was completely brutal. Backhanding or countering any laser shot his way, he shot straight at a ship and ploughed straight through the hull. Throwing energy blasts at every robot he found within, he punched straight through every wall until he found the main engine. Tossing a small energy ball at it, he smashed right through and out the roof as the engine blew up, taking the whole ship with it, and repeated the process with the next one, breaking in closer to the engine each time.

"Two Tone Tunic!" Rai jumped between a jet and a warship and took the blast meant to destroy the jet on the armour before shooting through the resulting smoke, straight in between two ships. Both ships followed him with laser fire and blasted each other in the process.

Flying alongside a jet as it turned, Jake knocked on the glass to get the pilot's attention before pointing at a battleship's booster. Nodding, the pilot locked on and fired a pair of missiles, blowing one of them apart. Jake used the opening to shoot a flamethrower into the ship, causing a huge explosion at the back of the ship and gave it a temporary boost of speed. The result was that it crashed straight through another, sending it and the two halves of its crash victim plummeting to the Earth, damaging two more along the way that became easy targets for the jets.

"Try this." Gohan shouted, flying above all of the ships and cupping his hands together. "KamehameHA!" His blue beam quickly shot down and grew to the size of Gohan's body before it blew right through the roof of a ship and struck the engine, blowing the whole thing up. The beam continued going down, though with a lot less strength, and blew up another ship's thrusters while debris from the first ship bombarded others, knocking them around and either shooting other ships or being left vulnerable to expert shooters within the jets.

However, despite the fact that the ships were easier to destroy than expected, no matter how many times the trio blocked, countered or used their opponents' attacks, it still looked hopeless. The jets were being shot out of the sky just as quickly and few were left. On top of that, though this area was showing strong resistance, most others had little to none. And to top it all off, Gohan, Raimundo and Jake were putting everything they had into the battle, trying to do as much as possible while searching for the leader of the fleet, who may have decided to just ignore where the remaining Guardians were fighting. They were all fully aware that if they didn't find Vilgax soon, their strength would fade too far for them to be of any use at all and the Earth would fall, piece by piece.

"Are more still showing up?" Rai cried exasperatedly, puffing as he dodged another stream of laser fire. "I can't see any difference since we started and we've sent plenty to the scrap yard."

"No kidding Jake agreed as he shot by to a nearby ship, manually turning one of its lower lasers upward and making the ship shoot itself. "These ships aren't nearly as tough to break as I thought they'd be, but their numbers are unbelievable."

_This is a losing battle_ Gohan thought with a grunt, throwing up an energy shield as five ships shot at him, groaning as he fought desperately to keep it up. _If we can't turn this around, no one will be safe. Every innocent life will be destroyed._ As the thought crossed his mind, Gohan's face changed from strained to infuriated. _And I won't LET THAT HAPPEN!_ With a primal roar, the energy he was releasing tripled in size, the sudden dramatic increase of power causing his force field to expand as fast as lightning and crash into the front of the three nearest ships, blowing them out of the sky instantly. It didn't stop there though, as the force field exploded, the resulting wave of pure, incredibly strong energy blasting straight through every other ship within twenty meters of him.

Before anyone could register what they'd just seen, another primal roared escaped Gohan's lips and he released a barrage of gold blasts at the ships, his hands moving so fast that they were completely invisible and it appeared as if he was releasing twenty blasts simultaneously.

Jake and Raimundo hugged each other tightly and screamed in terror as they floated helplessly, surrounded by golden blasts that promised destruction all around them. In addition to the number of shots, each individual blast was capable of doing immense damage. If they were struck by even one, they'd die, if not from the blast itself, but by the help of the crash into the ground.

"SPHERE OF YUN!" Rai screamed, holding up the ball and sighing in relief as it surrounded them just before a stray blast would have hit them. "Phew, that was close." Rai sighed in relief, his legs giving out and his butt hitting the cushioned floor of the sphere.

"Where Gohan get all that from?" Jake cried incredulously, his eyes wide as he watched the golden meteor shower around them, its end nowhere in sight. "I know he's strong, but this is FAR beyond anything even he is capable of. He just suddenly exploded with power like nothing I've ever seen."

"I remember Namine muttering about an enormous amount of power sleeping within Gohan once." Rai said softly as more and more ships fell from the sky. "But I never thought that it could be this great. His power's beyond all imagination."

...

The same thought was passing through another's mind. Just outside Earth's orbit floated yet another ship. However, this one was much different to those attacking the Earth. It was much bigger and longer, the weapons were far more destructive and from just one look you could tell it would be much harder to damage. But it also had something else that no other invading vessel contained: a living creature.

Amidst the robots on board, a green humanoid creature. He was tall and muscular with green skin and tentacles coming from his chin. He was clad a black body suit with red and grey armour covering his chest and legs respectively, with a blue sword on his back and a yellow gauntlet bearing a very large crystal on his left hand that reached almost all of the way to his elbow. His demonic, red eyes were focused solely on a large monitor as it flicked through scenes on the planet.

Pictures of Japan revealed Goku and the Z Fighters laying waste to his forces while Masters Fung and Guan joined the remaining three Xiaolin Dragons and Dojo in messing with his forces in China. In America, the Plumbers' kids, the Possibles, the Fentons and many more had also joined the fight and were each proving surprisingly difficult to shoot down. And no matter what continent you went to, dragons and magic spells could be found decorating the air, alongside jet planes, and military ships of all sizes were firing wildly into the air.

But it was the display of a single child taking down countless numbers of ships that had Vilgax, conqueror of ten worlds, scowling.

"I was not aware that a power anywhere near that great even existed on Earth." He growled, stopping the monitor on Gohan's fight. "Even without him, the Earth's putting up a much better fight without Tennyson and his cohorts then I ever thought possible, especially with all of their most powerful weapons made useless. I should have brought my true fleet with me, not the lightly armoured throw away ships. No matter though. Defeating such a warrior should dampen their spirits." Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down, he turned to the robots at the flight controls. "Take us planet side, to the video feed's location." He ordered before turning back to see Gohan's attack finally slowing down. "I will deal with this one first. When he's defeated, I will head to the other side of the planet to destroy the rest of his kind and by then, this battle will have ended in my victory." A dark smile growing on his face, Vilgax took his seat and braced for entering Earth's orbit.

...

Gohan puffed heavily as he shot the last blast, fighting desperately to stay in the air. The enormous amount of power that had appeared out of nowhere had returned from whence it came and had left Gohan feeling completely exhausted, struggling to do so much as lift a finger.

"That should do it." He muttered drowsily, closing his eyes and letting his body descend towards the Earth. "This area should be pretty safe now. And if that doesn't draw out Vilgax, nothing will."

'Let's just hope you have enough time to recover." By the time the voice registered in his head as Jake's, red scaled arms had already slowed his decent and took him safely to the ground. "So why didn't you tell us you had so much power?" He asked while Rai and the last surviving jet used the remaining invaders' lasers to destroy each other.

"Because I don't know how much power there is inside me." Gohan mumbled softly, forcing Jake to lean his head in close to hear it. "And I don't know how to use it either. It just happens."

"Guys, we've got a problem." Jake's head snapped back up at Rai's worried scream at the same time Gohan's eyes snapped wide open.

"What an amazing energy level." Gohan muttered in awe, as he followed everyone else's eyes to the sky. "This guy is a bit stronger than even my dad."

For miles around, everyone gasped or screamed in pure terror as another ship entered the scene. It was bigger, uglier and even from a distance you could tell that it could take and give out a greater beating than any of the previous ships. They were mere dingies and this was the warship.

"We've found our target." Jake deadpanned as Rai landed beside him, the brunette's face paling at the sight of the ship.

"Of all the times for it to show up." Rai gulped, turning to look down at Gohan. "Saiyaman's exhausted and this thing looks fifty times as tough as the other ships. We'll never get to it, let alone make it to the head honcho."

"And even if we did, I doubt we could do anything to stop him if Gohan's senses are right. He's stronger than any of us." Jake added, looking down desperately at the tired warrior in his arms. "Do we have any chance at all?"

...

"Why bother with my real fleet, these outdated rust buckets will be more than enough for a crippled, primitive planet like Earth." Albedo said sarcastically, snarling at the monitors as they showed jets, battle ships and every magical creature and hero from gryphons to Saiyans attack and destroying the ships, targeting weak points or having them destroy each other if they lacked the strength to break metal themselves. "Vilgax is an overconfident fool. He hasn't bothered to properly evaluate Earth's inhabitants and now our side's destruction rate is as great as our enemies. Well fortunately, I was prepared for this." Tapping away at the console, he brought up the world map again. A few seconds later, it was covered by the words missile target setting as he activated every missile on the planet. "Hahaha! In a few moments, every major city will be targeted and destroyed, along with every one of Earth's heroes. That does of course mean that Vilgax won't get many slaves out of this world, but who cares. The glory of taking this world will have to be enough."

Focusing solely on his plan and the screen before him, Albedo never noticed the pounding of feet on metal as they ran away from the bridge.

...

"Come on, come on!" A man clad in suit of an army General shouted furiously at his men, his pale and panicky face never leaving the sight of the missiles rising from their hatches.

"Sir, it's no use." A subordinate cried, completely lost to his fear. "This Albedo guy has completely removed every ounce of control we had over the situation. All we can do is pull manually shut the system down, but it's too late now. The missiles will fire before we even begin."

Despite how scary the situation was, and only promising to get worse, mothers still found the time to cover their children's ears as the General swore loud enough to heard for miles.

...

With the same situation happening at every military base throughout the planet, Albedo set the last few coordinates into the missile guiding systems located in France, a dark smile forever planted across his face.

"Goodbye, insignificant nuisances." He cackled, aiming his finger for the launch button. He was just about to reach it when suddenly, blue energy wrapped itself around his torso and flung him back, crashing into the far wall. Groaning as he slid down it, his face scrunched up in pain, he took a second to calm himself before looking up with a mix of shock and anger on his face as it met the face of Lucky Girl, dressed for battle and glaring right back, Namine close behind her, a dagger in hand.

"Hello grade A pain in the butt." Lucky Girl said smartly, raising her hand and pinning Albedo to the wall. " Sorry I took so long to arrive at our little play date, but I just woke up from a long nap. Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

"Tennyson equalled me before, not you." Albedo snarled, struggling against the bonds of pure magic. "And now he and three of your little friends are dead, while two more are in comas and to top it off, Vilgax is about to kill your remaining three fellow Guardians. Face it sorceress, you've lost." Continuing to struggle, he smirked a Luck Girl as his hand managed to make it to his Omnitrix. Gwen's eyes went wide, but before she could stop him, he activated it and slammed it down, creating a flash of light much like Ben did. However, this flash was red.

'Chromastone!" Lucky Girl's magic served only to increase his strength as the crystalline figure rose effortlessly to his feet, looking smugly down at the sorceress. Gwen cut the magic off and jumped back, putting some distance between them as she glared at him. The only difference between Albedo and Ben's transformations was that Albedo's eyes and Omnitrix symbol was red instead of green and he had proven the first time he came to Earth that he was just as powerful as her cousin and twice as viscous in combat, with no care for others' lives to hold him back.

"So what are you going to do now Lucky Girl?" Albedo sneered, raising his glowing hand. "Your magic can be used in any number of ways, but the magic itself is just a type of pure energy. Up here in space, cut off from the elements and at risk of blowing a hole to the endless void of space, all you can use is spells that only require pure magic and we both know what happens if you use them." Throwing his fist out, he shot a beam of rainbow coloured energy, forcing her to put up shield. Lucky Girl groaned at the force she was having to hold back, barely keeping her shield in place.

_Namine, you have to hurry._ She thought, letting an eye flicker to the blond at the door.

_On it, I'll just need a minute._ Namine replied telepathically with a nod. Knowing subtlety wouldn't work here, she ran at the main console, bringing a growl from Albedo.

"You think I'll just let you break my control?" He shouted, his shoulder beginning to glow. A beam shot from it straight at Namine, only for a blue energy bubble to appear around the blond as she worked, completely neutralising the blast. "What? She doesn't have that kind of power."

"No, I do." Albedo turned back to Lucky Girl just in time to realise his mistakes before a blue energy ball struck him in the head painfully, topping him over: he'd let both beams dye down in his shock and failed to pay Lucky Girl any attention. And as his body only absorbed energy like her magic when he willed it to, that was a potentially lethal error.

"Oh, and you made another error when you were naming my short comings." Lucky Girl smirked as her spell book floated before her, already open. "We still have air I can use to make wind and the water vapour in it could make mist. But in addition... your body is crystal, a type of stone." Albedo's eye widened to the size of a dinner plate as that realisation hit home. "Professo Kai!"

"AAAHHH!" Albedo screamed as his crystalline body started melting. The spell wasn't one hitting him with pure energy, but one that was intended to mix with his body and alter it on the molecular level from his solid form to a liquid. Panicking, he threw his hand onto his Omnitrix and saved himself with a flash of red, changing his form. "Brainstorm! No simplistic, earth molecular alteration spell will help you now witch. Now, remove your appendages from the computer system you battle inept simpleton!" Ripping his shell open, Albedo released a stream of yellow, wavelike energy from his exposed brain and ensnared Namine before Lucky Girl could stop him and flung her away from the consol.

"WHOA!" Namine screamed as she flew across the room like Albedo had moments before. Moving fast, Lucky Girl threw up her hand and caught her in a force bubble, gently dropping her on the floor.

Albedo took advantage of the distraction and quickly scampered to the main console. "Time to, as you humans say, release Armageddon on the Earth." Cackling, he hit the launch button with his pincer before going into a full maniacal laugh as 'missiles launched' crossed the main monitor. "Now the diverse variety of inferior, primitive organisms will face enormous, chemically created combustions that will either incinerate their biological makeup or mutate their biological structure in a way that will prohibit the functions an organic manifestation requires to survive."

"If you're done patting yourself on the back…" Namine started before losing control and giggling. "You might want to check out what you just blew up."

"What do mean? I know where I set- OH MY WORD!" Albedo jumped and spasmed like crazy as he noticed the coordinates and flight trails of the missiles. Half hadn't even fired and the rest were completely ignoring the cities he'd targeted them for. Instead… "They'll destroy uncountable numbers of our ships! But how?"

"Easy." Namine answered, calming her giggling fit down to a smile as Albedo jumped one eighty degrees to glare at her. "I use this computer all of the time. It was easy for me to use your open programs to shut down every missile that involves deadly radiation and redirect the others to where your ships are floating. Hey look, some have already made it to their targets."

Words escaped the normally talkative Cerebrocrustacean as monitors all around the room lit up with explosions and airborne debris and cheers of joy managed to mute even the biggest explosions.

"Funny, I didn't know we had audio." Namine said lightly, enjoying the fireworks.

Albedo's eye twitched as he watch the destruction, turning red with rage._ How dare these inferior humans make a fool of me! I'm a Galvin! They will pay for this act of defiance against my will._

Whipping back around to the girls, Albedo opened his shell again, releasing streams of lightning right at the girls. However, Gwen had been ready for it since he'd taken on the electrokinetic form and was moving her hands up to create a shield even before he'd finished turning.

"Like the stormy elements?" Lucky Girl asked cockily, raising one hand over her head while the other kept the shield up against the constant streams of lightning. "Then you'll love this. Galeus Disruptus!"

"WHAA!" A fierce wind came out of nowhere and tore through the bridge, quite effectively ending Albedo's attack by blowing him away. Seeing him unable to rise, Gwen lowered her shield and let the wind slowly die as Namine headed back to the main console, freeing all military bases from the satellite's control.

"Ok, everything's released, now to just type one more command… password, ok and… I'm done." Namine cheered as the main monitor went blank. As Albedo looked up, all the other monitors followed it offline and the consoles quickly followed. Within thirty seconds, only the emergency lights and life support were active.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Albedo roared, his pincers sparking wildly in his rage as he got to his feet.

"Sent the satellite into emergency shutdown." Namine answered, tensing incase the need to dodge electricity arose. "It can't be activated for at least an hour after it's set into motion. The Satellite's useless to you now."

_NO! Now I have no way of shutting the world defences back down. _Albedo thought furiously. His body shook with rage beyond measure as he stared into the triumphant looks on the girls' faces, electricity fly from his brain in all directions, forcing Lucky Girl to place him in a bubble. _Well so be it! If I can't use this floating crater to blow up the Earth, I'll use it to destroy these two instead._ With that, he hit the Omnitrix again and when the green flash faded, a much more metallic alien was in Brainstorm's place.

"Lodestar!" Gwen's eyes went wide with fear as the magnet bodied alien appeared before them, throwing his claws at either side of him. Lucky Girl's power proved completely ineffective in stopping his as magnetic waves from his hands reached and ripped a console from a wall on one side and the door from the other before he flung his hands towards the girls, sending the chunks of metal hurtling right at them.

Lucky Girl threw her hands up in response, throwing a small energy blast from each palm, blowing both projectiles up, but the debris continued its course.

"ARGH!" The girls were blown right off their feet as the debris stuck, leaving bleeding gashes all over their bodies. But they had no time to recover as a large chunk of metal was ripped from the ceiling right above them and was coming down fast.

"Twistas Hotina!" the metal glowed blue as the top half was twisted backwards. The pull of the bending metal also had an additional affect, turning the metal one eighty degrees, so all the girls had to do to avoid it was pull their legs up to their bodies.

However, Albedo only continued to get madder and ripped up the floor beneath their feet, the two only just managing to dive away before the chunk of floor rose and smashed into the ceiling.

"This is nuts! If he keeps this up the whole satellite will be destroyed." Namine cried as she got back to her feet. hearing something cutting through the air, she turned to where she came from just in time to see a jagged piece of metal flying at her. She had no time to dodge and she knew it. Screaming, she whipped up her dagger instinctively and much to her surprise, she managed not only to hit it, but sent it sailing at Albedo. She stared in amazement as it hit his head and knocked it to the floor with a cry of pain, his body following.

"Wow, how did I do that?" Namine asked incredulously, staring down at her dagger in wonder.

"Looks like hanging out with Gohan and Kim is having some benefits." Gwen commented with a smile as her book floated before her again, flipping as if on its own accord until a sigh of relief left Gwen's mouth at the same time a roar of rage pierced her ears as Albedo levitated to his feet, his claws already sending out magnetic waves towards the consoles. "Don't think so Albedo. Abeo Exorior!" Blue light exploded from her hands, creating an orb around the occupants of the room before they disappeared in blue, shimmering energy one by one. As Albedo, the last of them, left, the consoles he focused his powers on dropped to the floor, the resounding the last noise to come from the bridge.

...

"Tell me again, how this is a good idea?" Jake asked nervously, shaking in his seat. With Gohan needing time to rest and the others lacking the necessary strength to take on Vilgax's warship, the trio had retreated to their own ship, which had miraculously survived the invasion fleet's attack and destruction with only a few scratches in the paintjob, and had taken off on a direct course for the warship.

"Excluding Gohan, this ship has more force behind it than anything we've got. And it's speed and maneuverability is unequalled." Rai answered confidently from the controls, avoiding enemy fire with an unpredictable sequence of loops, banking, dives and barrel rolls. "It'll get to and into the ship, no problem."

"But it doesn't have any weapons!" Jake exclaimed before screaming as Rai spun the ship upside down to avoid a particularly deadly looking blast. "What are you planning to do, ram the ship?"

"In a word, yes." Rai replied cheerfully, bringing another scream from Jake.

"ARE YOU BRAINDEAD OR SOMETHING?" Jake screamed, looking at Rai in unadulterated terror. "The ship will blow up on impact. You'll kill us!"

"Trust me. I have a plan." Raimundo said reassuringly, though Jake only seemed to panic more as they got almost within spitting distance of the warship. Their conversation at an end, Rai focused solely on the ship before him, his carefree attitude turning into a very serious one as he banked a hard right to avoid the warship's main weapon, a giant and immensely powerful beam coming from the gap between the top and bottom parts of the front of the ship. Readjusting their flight so they were back on a collision course, he flicked a few switches and activated the ship's boosters, bringing the ship to full speed.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Jake screeched, throwing his hands before his face and squeezing his eyes shut while even Gohan started to panic as they came within seconds of colliding. Rai ignored the headache he had growing and held the ship steady until the very last moment. Letting go of the controls, he leapt from his seat, grabbed Gohan and dived at Jake, pulling an orb out of his pocket along the way.

The entire warship fell victim to a wave of tremors as the Guardians' plane crashed into it and exploded, leaving burnt debris scattering before fall from the sky as if it had been shot from a cannon.

...

"I don't believe it." Vilgax exclaimed, surprised and wide eyed as he stared at his screen. "Why would they kill themselves like that? What could they possibly hope to accomplish?"

"A hole in our ship sire." A robot responded, gaining Vilgax's attention as the emergency lights exploded to life, the siren wailing in his ears. "And three biological life forms have entered the ship sire."

"What? So they survived?" Vilgax cried incredulously, having the monitor display the point of impact. "They're more resourceful than I thought."

...

Multiple grunts echoed throughout the empty hallway of the warship as what looked like a giant ball shot out of the flames of the exploding ship and through the hole the impact created, bouncing and rolling around the room. It was covered in soot and the only way you could tell people were within it was due to the grunts, cries and thumps of heavy objects being thrown about.

"Sphere of Yun!" Rai called as the ball bounced again. The ball glowed gold in response to the call and opened before shrinking to the size of a tennis ball after releasing its load. Screaming, the boys crashed into the ground.

"Well, I told you I had a plan." Rai said with a hesitant grin as he looked up at where the others lay groaning. Having landed on his belly, when Jake raised his head from his face plant, he did not look amused.

"You're explaining how we lost the ship to Dr Possible and Bulma." Jake said lowly through gritted teeth. "And when they're done with you, I am going to kill you." Rai gulped nervously at that as he got to his feet and slowly backed away, shivering at the venomous glare the Chinese boy pierced him with.

"Leave your revenge for later." Gohan sighed, getting to his feet just as an enormous door slide open, revealing a large number of robots charging their way. "We have some house cleaning to do first." He added, dropping into an offensive stance. However, before he could do a thing, the other two stepped in front of him, Jake transforming into his dragon form mid step. "Huh?"

"Gohan, just rest, conserve your strength." Jake told him, raising his claws.

"We can take these guys no problem. Besides, we'll need all the strength you can muster for Vilgax." Rai continued, raising his palms and mirroring Jake's stance. Sighing, Gohan nodded his consent and dropped his fists, taking a seat on the floor.

The looks on the two young heroes' faces would have had many living villains backtracking as they prepared for the oncoming enemy. They wait just long enough for the last of the robots to enter the room and into their range before jumping into action and soaring over their enemies' heads.

"Wudai Star Wind!" Stopping above the midpoint of the robot army, Rai threw his open palms right down at them, creating a powerful gale that slammed every robot below it into the ground before the wind bounced up and out from the ground like an explosion, blowing completed robots and severed parts everywhere.

Grabbing three of the lasers flying through the sky, two with his hands and the third with his tail, Jake let loose a barrage of constant fire in four directions, using his fire breath to blow up those ahead of him while the lasers handled those on either side and behind him.

Feeling a little drained himself, Rai followed Jake's lead and shot to the ground, kicking two robots' heads off and grabbing their laser guns as their bodies fell before laying waste on all those around him, spinning on the balls of his feet as he fired a beam from each laser. Between the two of them, the robots fell in no time at all, not managing to land even a single hit.

"Never send a bucket of bolts to a man's job." Jake smirked wrapping his tail around the last functional opponent and pile driving it into a wall.

"Don't get cocky." Gohan responded, joining Jake and Rai as they headed towards the door. "They were only sent to tire us out. One false move and Vilgax will annihilate us."

...

Out the door, up and down lifts and crossing four different, amazingly long hallways with doors leading to labs, armories and every other type of room known to man, the boys made their way quickly through the ship, following Gohan's senses to the location of Vilgax. In order to give them a little more time to regain their strength, particularly Gohan, they decided to head out on foot through the hallways rather than blasting through walls and possibly running into a trap. It turned out to be a better route anyway, as they were able to quickly and effortlessly take down small groups of robots along the way instead of letting them form another army. Nor were they blind sighted by any defense systems, able to scan every room and hallway for the secret hatches and moveable walls before actually entering them, making it easy to destroy every weapon.

It wasn't until they came to a door at the top of the ship that Gohan came a halt, clenching his fists as he scowled at it.

"He's in there." He said lowly, turning to the others. "It's now or never guys. Are you ready?"

"As ready as we're going to be before he blows up the Earth." Jake replied, blowing smoke from his nose. From Gohan's other side, Rai nodded with a glare, raising his wudia weapon to his chest height. Staring seriously at them for a moment, he took a deep breath and turned back to the door. Then, without warning, he threw his fist into the metal barrier, the impact busting a huge hole into it with a bang and sending debris right into a giant seat.

"Knock knock!" Gohan called sarcastically, his eye focusing sharply on the green, humanoid form noticeable around the seat. "Hope you don't mind us dropping by."

"On the contrary, you saved me the trouble of coming to you." Vilgax said smoothly, casually rising from his seat before turning to them, smirking cruelly as the teenage heroes scowled and tensed at his uncaring attitude. "You three are very impressive for such young warriors, at least as great as Tennyson, but this is where you meet your end."

"Aren't we cocky?" Rai growled, his knuckles going white around his blade. With a roar, he leapt into the air and right at Vilgax, bringing his blade back.

"Rai no!" Jake shouted.

"We have to do this together!" Gohan quickly followed.

Rai paid them no mind and swooped right at Vilgax' head. Unphased, Vilgax casually grabbed his sword and slashed at Rai, forcing him to rise out of the way. Growling lowly, Rai swung around behind Vilgax and targeted his back.

"Blade of the Nebula!" The sword's blade immediately turned into a long chain of wind that Rai swung as hard as he could, but before it even got halfway to its target, the three heroes gasped as Vilgax leapt and twisted his body in the air before bringing his spinning heel right into Rai's face.

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Rai's pained scream continued right through his bullet speed flight across the room before it was abruptly ended with an extremely loud bang. His eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk to tiny dots as he crashed into the wall and closed as he fell to the ground, not moving at all.

"No way." Jake paled, staring Rai's fallen form with wide eyes of his own. "No one has ever beaten Rai with just one shot. Do we stand any chance at all here?"

"Alone, not a chance in hell." Gohan replied, gritting his teeth as Vilgax turned to them, his cruel smirk never leaving his face. "Never take your eyes off of him and work in sync. It's our only chance."

"But we have no experience as a duo." Jake gulped, pulling his arms up protectively as Vilgax approached. "The only times we've ever fought together was with everyone else."

"We both figured it out with a few of the others, we'll figure it out together." Gohan responded, looking at Jake through the corner of his eye and giving him a small reassuring smile. "We can do this Jake. Trust me."

Gnawing his lip as he stared at the young warrior, Jake released a deep breath and nodded, growling fiercely at the squid man as he got within ten feet of them. Not letting him go any further, both boys shot into the air in a V formation. With a split second glance at Gohan, Jake knew exactly what he planned to do.

"Masenko HA!" Gohan thrust his palms down from above his head and shot a powerful, golden blast at Vilgax while Jake simultaneously took a deep breath and released a stream of fire. Smoke and sparks flew everywhere as the attacks hit their mark, completely blocking Vilgax from view.

"His power hasn't moved an inch. How is he unharmed?" Gohan scowled, trying to find an answer to his senses through the smoke.

"That jewel on his wrist created a shield." Jake answered, glaring at the centre of the smoke. As it floated away, the yellow energy shield became visible to Gohan's eye, along with Vilgax' sneering face.

"You will have to do much better than that." Vilgax taunted, turning his gaze fixedly on Jake. "Let me show you just what you're up against." Jake was barely given enough time to gasp in terror as Vilgax's eyes glowed red and released two lethal red beams, one from each eye and moving far too fast for Jake to avoid.

However, Gohan was another story. Before the beams even left Vilgax's eyes, Gohan gathered his ki into his hand and directed an open palm thrust towards Jake. The move created an invisible pulse that travelled right through the air, straight at the dragon.

"Whoa!" Jake cried, crashing into the floor on his side before the beams could hit. However, a scream followed as he saw the beams suddenly pulled a sharp turn, coming right back at him. "Aww man!" He cried, rolling out of the line of fire only for the beam to follow his path along the floor.

"HIYA!" A blur shot over him a second later and when Jake looked up, it was to find Gohan standing between him and the beam, using his energy covered hands to hold the beam back.

"Fool, you broke your own rule." Gohan growled as Vilgax's shadow consumed him as he appeared beside them, his sword coming down for the kill. Moving fast, Jake jumped up, thrust his tail up as fast as he could and swung it into the top of the blade's handle, leaving Vilgax the one surprised for once as the sword spun through the air and out of his reach. Still caught in his stupor from Jake's move, he was unprepared as Gohan twisted his hands and redirected the beams right back at him.

"ARGH!" Vilgax screamed, flying back a good eight feet before hitting the ground. However, he was quick to get back on his feet, his smirk replaced with a scowl. "I see you are more impressive than I gave you credit for dragon." He stated, patting his wounded gut. "Few have ever removed my sword from my hands. I guess I should fight seriously with the two of you."

"That beam could've annihilated anyone and he doesn't even consider using it fighting seriously?" Jake exclaimed incredulously as Gohan tensed at his side. "What would be a serious move for him, a nuclear explosion?"

Not bothering with a reply, Vilgax charged forward, his fist drawn back. Gohan retaliated with a barrage of energy blasts, but Vilgax almost effortlessly avoided every one, only getting nicked in the shoulder as he got right in the Saiyan's face, throwing a right hook. Gohan arched his back to avoid it before pulling into a full back flip as Vilgax aimed a kick at his hips. Planting both feet into Vilgax's knee mid flip, he leapt into the air and left Vilgax screaming as he fell painfully to the ground.

Jake took advantage of his fall and flew as fast as he could towards the far side of the room, his eyes focused on only one thing.

"You think you can escape?" Vilgax shouted, shooting another pair of eye beams at the reptile. However, before it could reach him, he reached his target. His hands wrapping firmly around the handle, Jake spun around and swung Vilgax's sword defensively before his chest, deflecting the beams back at Vilgax. However, he was more prepared this time and shot into the air himself at the last second, leaving a wide eyed Gohan in the line of fire.

"AARRGGHH!" Vilgax laughed triumphantly as the beams smacked right into the Saiyan, the intensity of the blast sending him careening into and through the already damaged door, shattering the rest of it into tiny pieces before losing altitude and crashing into the ground with his arms held protectively over his chest and stomach as he groaned and whimpered.

"Uh-oh!" Jake muttered, fear and panic lacing his voice. "Sorry Saiyaman. I didn't know he could fly. Please tell me you can get back up."

"It's surprising that he's even still conscious." Vilgax retorted, swooping towards Jake. "Redirection won't work on me twice. Thinking that pathetically of me will cost you dearly."

Forcing the growing fear in him down, Jake leapt into a roll to his right, effectively avoiding Vilgax's roundhouse kick, before leaping back to his feet and into a two-seventy degree spin, lashing out with the sword and forcing Vilgax to jump back so as not to lose his head. Leaping into the air, he released a flamethrower straight at Vilgax, but the squid man merely reactivated the yellow crystal and blocked the flames as he flew at his target, the fire not slowing him down in the slightest in his bid to ram Jake. He smiled in victory as Jake ran out of breath, but before he could get within an inch of the dragon, a pair of hands clasped firmly around his leg and hammered him into the ground.

"I'm not dead yet." Gohan grunted, breathing deeply as he charged a ball of energy in his hand. Vilgax rolled to the side and leapt to his feet as Gohan threw it, leaving the blast to hit the ground as Vilgax launched a fist at Gohan with enough strength to crush his head. His injury and exhaustion taking their toll on him, Gohan didn't have enough speed left to the avoid the attack and shut his eyes tightly as he brought his arms up before his face, bracing for impact. But instead of feeling the immense pain of a fist, firm and carefully placed claws wrapping around his waist was the next sensation he experienced before being pushed close to a scaled chest and ripped from the ground.

"Huh?" He gasped, opening his eyes to find himself flying through the air under Jake's wings. "Phew. Thanks Jake, that was a close call.

"Hey, glad return the favour." Jake replied, landing on the far side of the room from Vilgax, tensing as he stalked towards them. "But seriously, how do we defeat this guy?"

Chewing on his lip, Gohan held back his answer. Though they didn't say it, with Gohan so close to depletion, the previous battles had warn Jake and Rai out too and this battle would have been tough if they were all up and fighting at full strength. In his experienced opinion, he'd have to say that this fight was a lost one.

That is until a flash of red and white crossed the room behind Vilgax, aiming for the console. Catching Rai's smirk in his direction and a very clear hand movement through the corner of his eye, he grew a grin of his own and placed his hands together, forming a large energy sphere between them.

"We stall him." Gohan answered, not taking his eyes off Vilgax. Confused, Jake turned to Gohan and caught Rai past him, immediately understanding and nodding in agreement.

That was all Gohan needed to see and he immediately shot the blast at Vilgax, forcing him to raise his shield. Using the smoke as a cover, Jake flew right over Vilgax's head before shooting down and slamming his foot into the unsuspecting squid man's back, toppling him over. Grabbing Vilgax's leg, Jake landed on the ground and spun him around a full seven-twenty degrees .

"Roaring phoenix." Jake shouted, before tossing Vilgax into the air as hard as he could.

"Chinese monk style huh? Ok." Gohan grinned, raising both of his arms and one of his legs as a grunting Vilgax approached him. "Try this squid head, mantis kick!" Throwing up the leg he'd been standing on, he ploughed it as hard as he could into Vilgax's chin, sending him soaring upward with a roar of pain.

"AARRGGHH! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" Roaring at the top of his lungs, Vilgax pulled himself to an immediate halt in the air and fired blast after blast from his eyes, decorating the entire room with red flashes and explosions.

"Energy shield!" Gohan screamed, bending his arms upward as what looked like a gold lightning and his aura exploded from him and created a dome shaped force field more than twice the size as one of Gwen's, protecting him from the blasts though the force of the enemy attacks were still sufficient to force him to his knees.

Determined to prevent Vilgax from spotting Rai, Jake shot straight at the villain, leaning, gliding and twisting his body in a constant motion to avoid the attacks. However, before even his flames could have reached Vilgax, three blasts hit him, one right after another.

"Aaarrggh!" Jake's agonised scream was almost a whimper as he nosedived straight to the ground, smoke trailing from his back, shoulder and tail and more red, streaking promises of death following closely behind him.

"Jake, NO!" With a primal scream, Gohan's force field doubled in size, opening for half a second as it did to let Jake in. His rage only continuing to build as Jake flinched and whimpered, and with another primal scream, he thrust his hands up and to together, his aura whipping around him with the intensity of an explosion. His shield responded instantly, rising off of the ground and condensing as flew on its way to Vilgax, slowly, but completely impassable.

"What?" Vilgax gasped, staring wide eyed at the blast as it approached, completely unphased by his own shots. "But he's overtaxed and injured. How could he still have this much power?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, he threw up his arm and reactivated his crystal's shield just before the blast could hit him.

It did him little good though, as the blast's explosion took out half of the room, striking Vilgax with an albeit weaker intensity as it went around his shield. As the dust cleared, it revealed him battered and bruised, growling lowly as he pulled himself onto his hands and knees and stood up to find his ship's overly large control room in ruins.

"NNNOOO!" He roared, his eyes turning almost black in his rage as he stared from the smoking piles of scrap that had once been consoles to the boys before him as Rai helped carefully settle the now human Jake on Gohan's back. "Those consoles controlled every other ship in the invading fleet! Without them sending signals, the robots and the ships will become useless and plummet from the sky."

"Then let's hope that they are blown up, caught or don't land on anyone, but other than that, WHOO HOO!" Rai retorted, throwing a fist tauntingly into the air. "Looks like we just ended your invasion plans."

"Don't fool yourself brat." Vilgax shouted, glaring maliciously at the wind wielder. "This ship can still attack and though I don't know how you're still alive, you know full well of my strength."

"I'm still alive because my defeat was and act." Rai retorted, smirking triumphantly at the growing rage on Vilgax's face. "The bang and damage in the wall was a compressed burst of wind from one hand while I used the other to slow myself down. So when you got distracted, I could mess with your system. I promise you, you've lost."  
"What? What did you do?" Vilgax cried, the first look of worry crossing his face.

"I set it to fly into space and had it selfdestruct in three minutes right before Gohan's not-so-little whammy destroyed the console. Now since we're rising and the three minutes is counting down fast, I'm gonna say goodbye." Waving mockingly, Rai pulled a large, reptilian tail out of his pocket. "Serpent's Tail!" Leaning the tail on Gohan and Jake's shoulders, Rai laughed merrily as they dropped through the ship's floor right as Vilgax charged for them. As they exited the bottom of the ship, Gohan's aura flared again as he grabbed Rai's arm and dived down as fast as he could while Rai threw his free hand back and released the strongest gale he could to speed them up. They had just made it close to the tops of the tallest buildings as an enormous bang filled their ears, followed by intense waves of heat. Looking up as they continued their decent, it was to find explosions coming from every inch of the warship before the whole thing went up in one colossal burst of flames.

"WHOO! Now that's a light show." Rai cheered, grinning smugly at his work. As tired and sore as the other two were, they still managed exchange rolling eyes at that before both of them bopped him on the head. "OOWW! What was that for?"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"WHOA!" Four simultaneous screams filled the air as a portal opened in the sky, expelling four teenagers to plummet to the ground before disappearing without a trace.

"We've got a problem." Kim cried, staring wide eyed at the quickly approaching concrete below. "There's nothing to grab onto and I CAN'T FLY!"

"Neither can I." Roxas shouted, turning a glare on the others. "Get the lead out you two. Are you waiting for pancakes or something?"

"Wow, where did you gain that attitude?" Danny asked, grabbing Roxas' hand as he transformed and pulled them to a stop. At the same time, a flash of green appeared beside them.

"Big Chill!" Kim sighed in relief as a pair of blue arms wrapped around her waist, stopping her decent. However, the felling quickly disappeared as she stared at the sight below her. Now that the imminent danger to her life had past, her mind was completely free to register the destruction and debris that decorated a once vibrant city.

"Now this is not the welcome home party I expected." Ben said dryly, staring back and forth across the street. The crumbling ship behind him caught his attention as the damaged building it had been leaning on gave way. Staring at it intently, he couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity he got from it, though he knew that he hadn't seen that particular model before. "That thing is definitely of alien design. It appears Albedo brought some reinforcements."

"Or maybe he was just a pawn." Danny responded, staring at the dilapidated area. "If he had the numbers under his command to pull this off, I doubt he'd risk his whole plan by attacking us himself. The bad guys never do something themselves if they have minions that can do it for them."

"Then who is the mastermind?" Roxas asked with a frown.

"Maybe whoever's fighting over there?" Kim suggested, pointing off to the left as a building fell down, followed by an explosion.

"Meh. Either way, we should head over there. It's one more battle we can stop." Danny shrugged, taking off towards the fight. Ben was only a second behind.

...

Back flipping, Gwen leapt onto and over a car as it flew right at her, courtesy of Albedo. The battle had continued the very second they all appeared in the middle of a destroyed city and it still wasn't going entirely well for Gwen and Namine. Though the ground beneath their feet was no longer a danger to them and the threat of being sucked into space was gone, fighting a magnetic opponent was still proving to be extremely difficult, especially when they were surrounded by metal debris.

"This is getting very irritating." Gwen growled, raising her hand at her side as steel pipe soared her way like arrows, ready to impale her. "Turbo!" Throwing her hand forward, she created a small tornado of wind and blue magic. It caught the pipes, though not without a bit of trouble, and continued its course, straight at Albedo. However, the shape shifter would not be beaten so easily, raising what must have once been large walls of metal and blocking the spell before sending them right at the sorceress.

Gwen stared wide eyed as the metal walls came upon her, completely unprepared for the sudden twist. They were too big for her magic to release them from Lode Star's magnetic grip and blasting them would do enough damage to save her. On top of that, there was no way she could move out of the way, Albedo would just change their flight path.

However, before the metal could strike, white light swirled into a circle around her feet and the next thing she knew, she was falling straight down, as if the ground had disappeared and found herself exiting the white light next to Namine just in time to see the metal smash into the ground.

"Are you alright?" Namine asked worriedly, her hands itching as her healing power gathered within them. However, she relaxed as Gwen responded with a smile and a nod.

"Yeah, thanks for the save Namine." Gwen said as she raised her hands again. "Block this metal head! Twista Combetitus!"

As Albedo used his magnetic power and sent two cars surging at the girls from each side, Gwen's magic created a glowing blue snake that twisted itself around the girls, shielding them from the cars as they collided with it and exploded. Before the remaining wrecks had even hit the ground, the snake shot straight at Albedo, crashing through every bit of metal he summoned between them with ease before ploughing straight into him.  
"AARRGGHH!" Albedo was blown back so hard that his body created a trench as he met the ground, until his body was halted by a large chunk of concrete while his head bounced back another ten metres like a beach ball. Groaning, he blinked for a moment, disorientated, before levitating his head to glare as best Lode Star could at the smug looking Lucky Girl.

"You will pay for the pain you have caused me Tennyson!" He growled as his head and body reunited, both shaking in uncontrolled rage.

"Hmm, now where have I heard that before?" Gwen asked sarcastically, raising her glowing fists. "If you don't mind, I'd like to skip the super villain clichés and get right to the part where this fight ends. I have friends to help."

"Oh, you're not helping anyone, but if the end is what you want..." Albedo sneered, moving his pincer to the Omnitrix before being once again consumed in red light. "Humungosaur! I will happily finish this fight, once and for all." With that, he charged straight at them, his fists brought back, before leaping into the air and smashing his fists into the ground where Gwen and Namine were standing only seconds before.

"AARRGGHH!" The impact sent shockwaves through the ground that flung the girls back as soon as they landed, with chunks of earth and concrete slashing against their bodies before landing hard on their backs. Groaning, Namine looked up just in time to see Albedo leap out of the crater he'd made and aiming his fists at them again, his body growing and becoming more heavily armoured as he descended and increasing the speed of his fall.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Screaming, the blonde slammed her palms into the ground beneath her and created another portal that swallowed both girls up before disappearing, saving them as a crater twice the size of the last one was created before it opened up on the other side of the battlefield, depositing the girls where it was temporarily safe.

"Gwen, I've never really seen Ben use this alien. What is its weakness?" Namine asked, paling with fear as Albedo approached them again, crushing cars carelessly.

"Only that it's slow." Gwen sighed, ripping what remained of her cloak off of her neck as she got to her feet. "Unfortunately, what you see is a creature that's as strong as Gohan with armoured skin twice as strong as Jake's scales when he's in the fully grown state we're staring at. If it weren't for his lack of super speed and that he is incapable of anything but short ranged combat, we'd be looking at a creature that outclasses every Guardian. Ben only has one alien that's stronger than this one in terms of physical strength. Let's just be thankful we're not fighting him."

Before they could say anything else he jumped at them, aiming to backhand them. Gwen threw a shield up to protect them, but the force of the blow hitting the shield completely shattered it before another fist made its mark, right into both girls.

Soundless gasps left their mouths as they flew through the air, immense pain coursing through their torsos, before crashing hard into piles of broken bricks and concrete. Fortunately, Albedo hadn't managed to put all of Humungosaur's strength behind the second blow and to hit both at once took more of the force away from the blow, but it was still far more than enough to stop them. Gasping raggedly, Namine fought to raise her hand and bring it to a very deep gash on her chest. It required a lot more concentration and effort than ever before, but the white glow surrounded her hand and numbed the pain of her worst injury. However, that wasn't to say that the others were exactly small and she passed out from pain and exhaustion just as the gash receded to the size of a paper cut.

Gwen was a little better off. Her self-preservation instinct coming into play, she'd managed to create another shield around herself at the last minute, but her weakened form and the force of the landing was still enough to burst her bubble and leave her to the sharp edges of the debris. Groaning and whimpering, she forced herself to sit up and examined her body, sighing in relief when she found that only one significant gash resting on her hip and what was probably a broken left hand made up her worst injuries. She was in a hell of a lot of pain and wasn't going to be doing much fighting now, but she'd survive. That is, assuming that Albedo didn't land another hit.

"You should have just laid down and died." Albedo said coldly, tremors pelting her body as he approached, his fist held high. "It's the only way you'll escape your pain. Farewell."

"Emocha Objectia!" Multiple blasts burst from Gwen's raised hand right before Albedo could bring down his own fist. Grunting continuously, he stumbled back with every hit.

"That will not save you YYYAAAA!" Crossing his arms over his head, Albedo charged right through the assault.

"AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" Gwen's scream was blood curdling as pure agony exploded from every inch of her body, courtesy of Albedo's clenching around her tightly. All of her wounds screamed at the immense pressure they were under and almost all of her bones were cracking. It was a miracle that she was still conscious, though that was proving to be more of a curse than anything else to the distressed sorceress.

"If punches don't suit you, I'll crush you to death." Albedo growled, glaring fiercely at Gwen's face, the only part of her not hidden within his fist, watching as her eyes dimmed from pain and lack of oxygen. "Goodbye witch."

"Hello copycat!" Albedo fell into shock as Danny, transparent and blue tinted, dived straight passed his head and towards the ground. His hand suddenly feeling empty, Albedo's eyes closed into slits of malicious rage at the thought of Gwen escaping destruction again before running as fast as he could to where Danny was putting her down.

However, he didn't even make it two feet before a painfully cold sensation struck his legs, sticking them to the ground and causing him to fall. Looking back, he found his legs consumed in a block of ice that reach right up to his thighs.

"I had the feeling that you needed to cool off." A feral growl left Albedo's lips as the form of a Necrofriggian appeared out of thin air above the ice, his wings extended and looking furious.

"I thought I Killed you two." Albedo snarled, ploughing his fist into the ice, shattering it to pieces, bringing his hands clasped together at his side as he stood up.

"Then I suppose you think you killed him too." Ben said sarcastically, pointing behind him, turning his head, Albedo just managed to catch a glimpse of bright light before what looked like a white comet collided with where his tail met his back, sending waves of immense pain right through his spine. Roaring in agony, his body crashed to the ground and shrunk to Humungosaur's base size as the white energy landed before him and dissipated, revealing a very familiar blonde boy and his even more distinct black and white blades.

"Isn't it time to finish this?" Kim called, standing protectively in front of their injured friends. Using the fight as a distraction, she'd slinked between piles of debris to Namine and carried her to Gwen and Danny. "We've got injured team mates and I'm not much better. End this already you bunch of show offs."

"Look who's talking." Danny snickered, joining the boys as Albedo slowly got to his feet. "Well, you heard the mistress of action. Give him all you've got boys."

"Upchuck!" Ben exclaimed, a flash of green covering him before revealing a humanoid frog with camouflage patterned skin and an overly large mouth, comparative to his size, rapidly eating chunks of debris scattered around his feet. Ignoring the gorge fest, Danny brought an unusually bright green glow to his hands while Roxas, falling to his butt as his still injured body gave out on him, raised his keyblades, light gathering at their points as a look of pain and determination crossed his face.

"Ready, aim, FIRE!" Danny screamed as Albedo made it back to his feet. An extremely bright green beam, a barrage of green, circular blasts and thirteen light javelins burst forth and struck home, right in Albedo's chest.

"AARRRGGHHH!" The combined attacks created an explosion as they met Albedo's body and sent him fly a good twenty feet back, screaming loud another to be heard for miles the whole way. A red light filled their vision as he hit the ground, accompanying the colossal bang his landing created. As the light and dust cleared, it revealed Albedo's human form, twitching and gasping raggedly as he raised his head, glaring at them with a mixture of pain and venom. Such a look on Ben's face was enough to make Danny, Kim and Roxas shiver even as they stood in victory, the blood red eyes only making it worse.

"I...will defeat..." Albedo snarled as best he could as he reached for his Omnitrix, the pain slowing his movements. However, before he could even reach the controls, four tongues wrapped around the console and ripped it out. Following it, he stared in horror as it reached Ben, the tongues releasing it into his hand rather than his mouth for once. "H-how did you...?"

"You think I wouldn't have figure out how to disconnect the console by now?" Ben asked cheekily, tossing it around. "I may be a life form from a 'backwater' planet, but I'm not brain dead. I've had this thing for five years for crying out loud."

"That piece of knowledge somewhat disturbs me." A wise, deep, disembodied voice stated, drawing looks of confusion from Danny, Kim and Roxas, a panicked one from Albedo and a grin from Ben before a small flash of light appeared by Ben and faded to reveal another froglike creature, this time having grey skin and was much smaller, but his face bore a look of age and wisdom far beyond Ben's. "What were you doing to figure that out?" He asked, staring up at Ben with a raised eyebrow.

"Removing a roach that got snuck underneath." Upchuck shrugged before returning to his human form. Seeing Danny grabbing Albedo, Ben handed the Omnitrix console to Azmuth before kneeling next to Roxas. "I told you that you should just rest and leave it to us. Of all four of us, you're still the most wounded."

"Hey, I'm ok." Roxas replied stubbornly, though he accepted the support Ben offered and leaned against his side.

"Nonsense boy. Even I can see that you're too injured to fight." Azmuth retorted, jumping onto Ben's shoulder. "You are just as stubborn as Ben and Max Tennyson. I can see why you two get along so well." He added, letting his serious demeanour fall as he stared at the blonde warmly.

"Um, who are you?" Roxas asked confusedly, frowning at the new arrival.

"I am Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix." Azmuth answered formally. "I am here to take Albedo back to his cell and return this rip-off of my invention back to a secure place." That being said, he leapt off of Ben and headed right for the struggling Ben duplicate.

"I...won't go back t-to that prison." Albedo cried between gasps, trying and failing to break Danny's stronger than human grip.

"Yes, you will! And this time I doubt Vilgax will save you." Azmuth retorted, pulling out what looked like a TV remote and pointing it at Albedo as he pushed a button.

"NNNNOOOO!" Albedo screamed as the light of technological teleportation covered his form. A second later, with a big flash, he disappeared without a trace.

"Great, mission accomplished. Now what do you say one of you find a paramedic for the four of us injured before two of us die?" Kim suggested, flopping onto the ground as Ben and Danny nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately, this whole mess is not entirely over." Azmuth called right before Ben and Danny took off, causing them all to freeze. "I have been watching your planet as I searched for Albedo and much has been damaged, as you would have noticed. This was done by Vilgax's army."

"VILGAX?" Ben screamed, paling significantly as Azmuth nodded his head.

"He is the one who freed Albedo and it is his plan that Albedo was following. Fortunately, your friends managed to destroy Vilgax's flagship, which was controlling the inferior ships he brought to Earth, eliminating them as a factor, but the battle isn't over. The last I saw, Vilgax was fleeing his exploding ship and he won't stop until he gets revenge on the three who have foiled his plans."

"They can take care of themselves." Danny shrugged, not worried in the slightest. "Gohan's the greatest of us and the others are no slouches either. They can stop him, no problem."

"No, it is a problem." Ben shook his head, growing more worried by the second. "Vilgax almost destroyed me every time I fought him. It was only ever by sheer dumb luck that I managed to win. He's stronger than Gohan, extremely intelligent and far more experienced in combat. Their chances of success are low."

"The two of you must go at once. They were last seen east of here." Azmuth stated, pointing east just as a large explosion shook the earth, the flames and sound of the bang impossible to miss. "Well, that ought to make your search easier." Azmuth commented casually.

"But what about them?" Danny asked, looking at the girls with more than a little concern.

"I have a few Galvan medics along with me. I suspected this would happen and had them come along just in case." Azmuth replied, pulling out his remote again and pointing it at the four injured heroes as he pressed a button. In four flashes of light, they too disappeared. "They have already set up a few medical tanks and other pieces of equipment on your satellite. It won't be long before all four of them, as well as Kevin and Max, are back to full health." He added, turning to Ben in particular as the boy's fears for his family faded in relief. "Hurry Benjamin. You know better than anyone that once Vilgax is enraged, the danger to all around him becomes extreme, even for the toughest of warriors."

"Right." Ben nodded as he raised the Omnitrix again and brought up Big Chill before slapping the controls down. "Big Chill! Come on Danny, no time to waste." He stated, taking off instantly.

"Right behind you!" Danny cried, following after him.

Watching them become a speck in the sky, Azmuth could only chuckle at Ben's haste. The boy's maturity had increased dramatically since he was a child, and the reversion he experienced for that brief period of time after beating the Highbreed had been completely neutralised by the events of and following the Organisation's invasion, but some things would never change. One of them was Ben's haste to join a battle and protect the people he cares about.

"I am confident that the Saiyan hybrid, the dragon and the wind wielder could stop Vilgax you know." Azmuth commented, seemingly to himself. "So why have me drive them to the battle?"

"To help prepare them for their destiny." A chipper voice answered as a middle aged man in a lab coat walked out of thin air, grinning with almost psychotic happiness up at the sky. "The same reason that I didn't return the four to the present myself. They need more experience together, to bond and predict each other's movements the way only a true team can. Their destinies are the greatest I've ever seen and it is important that we help them prepare for it in any way we can."

"The entire universe will one day rely solely on those kids." Azmuth mused, turning to the setting sun. "I think we are in good hands."

...

It was the sound of cheers that first caught Gohan, Rai and Jake's attention when they reached the ground as people crawled out of hiding spots, ecstatic about being safe again. No one seemed to cared about the small pieces of debris still falling from the sky, they were all too busy celebrating the defeat of yet another invasion and wanting to get close looks at the people who saved them. And Rai was enjoying the attention.

"Thank you, thank you. It was nothing really. Just another day's work." He said dramatically, waving his hands as if it was no big deal while smiling charmingly at every teenage girl he could find. As the mob approached, Gohan sighed and Jake rolled his eyes as they watched Rai bragging about his actions, signing autographs and taking pictures with girls and little kids.

"Well, he certainly likes the spotlight." The police Officer commented dryly as a reporter and her cameraman made it to the front of the crowd.

"That's why most Guardians let him do all of the interviews with the media when they show up." Gohan replied, flopping onto his butt after setting Jake down. "Normally Jake's not much better."

"At least I'm not like that." Jake grunted defensively, pointing at Rai as he wrapped his arm around the reporter's waist as he answered her questions while simultaneously giving the rest of the girls flirtatious smiles.

"Healthy teenage male, that's for sure." The officer commented, barely holding back a laugh.

However, any amusement and excitement that had developed was instantly taken away as a small building suddenly exploded, brick and glass shards flying everywhere as screams of excitement turned into screams of terror. Working on reflex, Rai threw his hands up and quickly released a gale, protecting the crowd from potentially lethal projectiles.

"What happened over there?" The reporter demanded, only getting a shrug from her cameraman. "Ladies and gentlemen, though it is unknown what caused it, the celebration of the Valour Guardians' victory has been placed on hold as another destructive blow hits our fair ci-"

"MOVE! IT'S VILGAX!" Gohan screamed, wide eyed with panic. There was no mistaking the shiver inducing dark, cruel and insanely powerful energy he was sensing within the flames. And sure enough, his silhouette broke clearly through the flames a second later, before the dark warrior stomped right through them, venomous hatred pouring off of him in waves as he stared at the tensing trio, the only people not running off with their tails between their legs.

"I don't believe it." Rai gulped, sweat running down his pale face. "How could you possibly survive that explosion?"

"You think I wouldn't have an emergency teleportation system close to me?" Vilgax snarled, his glare only intensifying. "Now I'm going to make you suffer for what you have done. I may not be able to conquer your planet today, but I will still destroy the three of you."

"This is really...argh!" Jake cried, pain overwhelming him as he tried to stand up, curling into a ball as it forced him to fall back down.

"I believe he was gonna say bad." Gohan muttered, standing protectively in front of the wounded dragon. However, his form was sloppy, a clear sign of his exhaustion to a trained warrior like Rai and Vilgax. He would not survive long in combat with Vilgax and they all knew it.

_Why me?_ Rai thought fearfully, biting his lip. Frowning, he made a decision and stepped in between Gohan and Vilgax, dropping into a defensive stance as Gohan gasped at his actions.

"Rai, what are you-"

"Gohan you're too worn out to fight head on." Rai interrupted, never taking his eyes off their foe. "Just stay where you are and protect Jake. I'll take care of Vilgax."

"You think you can take me?" Vilgax almost laughed at the thought of it as he dropped into an offensive stance. "You're even more foolish than I thought."

"Hey, don't forget, it was me who tricked you into ignoring me before blowing up your precious ship." Rai retorted with forced irritation, doing all he could to ensure Vilgax only focused on him. His plan was successful as Vilgax's haughty expression was quickly replaced by the venomous glare he'd worn before, only this time it was focused solely on the dragon of the wind. _Now I just hope Gohan figures out my plan. And has the strength to pull it off._

There was no time to see Gohan's reaction to his actions however, as Vilgax was already coming in for an attack, both of his fists ready to strike. Rai didn't even think of blocking blows and leapt to his right as Vilgax launched his first punch before using the wind to propel him over Vilgax to avoid a kick.

"Wudai Star Wind!" Rai shouted, spinning as fast as he could with his arms out at either side, creating a tornado. However, Vilgax refused to be blown away and dug his feet into the ground while his arms crossed before his torso. As he fully stabilized himself, he looked up at Rai's rising form and released his eye beam straight at him.

"Sphere of Yun!" Fortunately, Rai had seen his eyes glowing before the blast was released and was able to properly prepare. The impact of the enemy blast knocked the ball sledge hammering into a building, Rai's screams following it all the way.

"Whoa, what a ride." Rai groaned, tenderly rubbing a bump on his head as debris fell off of the opening an shrinking sphere. He may have been protected from the blast and the building, but that didn't stop him from bouncing around the sphere. He ignored the pain however, and back flipped into the air as Vilgax leapt at him with a flying kick, resulting in another crater forming before the tyrant leapt into the air after his prey.

"Lotus Twister!" Rai shouted raising a lotus flower. The plant glowed gold and wrapped around his wrist as Rai threw his arms out. Vilgax almost dropped his jaw as Rai's arm stretched much farther than they were physically capable of and failed to react in time to stop two fists from crashing into his face.

"Augh!" More stunned than hurt, Vilgax's head was thrown back and his eyes closed tight, leaving him unprepared as long, vinelike arms circled around his body tightly from his chest to his feet. Spinning as fast as he could, he completed five full spins before releasing Vilgax right at a dilapidated building.

However, he never reached it. His eyes snapping open fiercely, Vilgax pulled himself to a complete stop and surged back the way came, his hands clasping together. A little disorientated from the spin, Rai didn't even notice until it was far too late and the massive swing struck his shoulder.

"AARRGGHH!" Rai screamed, plummeting to the ground. Opening his eyes halfway, he refocused on controlling the wind and managed to catch himself just centimetres off the ground. A deep sigh of both pain and relief escaped Rai's mouth as he stared at the ground through one eye. If he had waited even another second, it would have been game over. "Note to self, find a magical way to enhance my durability." He muttered as his feet met the ground. A split second later, he jumped again, narrowly avoiding a flying kick from his alien foe. Ignoring the pain coursing through him, Rai retaliated by flipping in the air and coming down with an axe kick aimed at Vilgax's head, only for the squid man to lean almost casually to the side before spinning into a heel kick.

"Wind!" Rai screamed, throwing his hands into the air and creating a sudden burst of wind around himself and pushing Vilgax off balance. Leaping at Vilgax's face, he threw a right hook, only for Vilgax to catch it, smirking cruelly at the shocked teen. It only grew darker as he tightened his grip, enjoying Rai's agonised screams as bones cracked.

"Humans break so easily." Vilgax taunted as he dug his nails into Rai's fist, drawing blood and even more screams. "You are not even worth my time brat." Despite the pain, Rai still managed to open his eyes which grew to the size of half his face and filled with terror as Vilgax's started glowing red again. He had no way of escaping the next blast and no chance for survival at point blank range.

However, the shot never occurred, for at that moment, blast after blast of gold energy struck Vilgax's exposed back, his body jerking painfully with each blow and causing him to drop the monk. Turning as the attack died down, Vilgax scowled maliciously at Gohan's panting form as the last of the energy faded from the boy's outstretched hands.

"I may be tired...but I'm...still here." Gohan puffed, staring defiantly right back at Vilgax. "You still do have to defeat two of us."

"Make that four!" A voice called before Vilgax could respond. Eyes wide and gasping, Gohan, Jake and Raimundo whipped their heads up as they recognised the voice and found an infuriated looking Danny flying into the battlefield.

"Tell me Vilgax, how many times must we have this dance?" A chilling voice asked as Big Chill appeared before the big brute, his arms crossed and his wings covering him like a cloak.

"Tennyson?" Vilgax roared, noting the green Omnitrix symbol and eyes. "Albedo was supposed to have destroyed you!"

"He also wasn't supposed to be kicked out of our satellite and defeated now was he?" Ben retorted before going intangible and sinking into the earth as Vilgax tried to hit him, reappearing five feet away. "Uh-uh Vilgax. Just because you can hit me when I'm intangible doesn't mean it isn't a useful tool."

"Here's another useful tool, courtesy of ectoplasm." Danny shouted, releasing an ecto beam. Growling Vilgax ran and jumped right over it, aiming a brutal left hook at Danny. But before he reached him, a burst of wind sent Vilgax uncontrollably skyward.

"I still have one hand." Rai groaned, his left palm raised.

Becoming angrier by the minute, Vilgax changed his course and dived straight down at Raimundo, his fist all set to end his life, only for Big Chill to jump in the way and slap the Omnitrix, creating a flash of green light.

"Diamondhead!" Vilgax had just enough time to see a purple and green figure before a wall of crystal grew between them. Snarling, he managed to crash through it easily enough, but it took a considerable amount of his speed away and he was instantly slugged in the shoulder with a spiky, crystalline foot, diverting his course right into a car. Said car blew up a minute later as Vilgax slammed his fist into its engine, nearly blind with rage.

"Will this guy just go down already?" Jake cried exasperatedly, trying and once again failing to stand. "Rai's hurt bad, I'm useless, you're drained and neither Ben nor Danny seems to be in prime form either. How do we stop him?"

"By giving him all we have left." Gohan answered, his face set as he stared at Jake, a plan forming in his head. _This has never been done before and is probably as dangerous as all hell, but I have to give it a try._ "Jake can you transform?"

"Huh? Yeah." Jake responded, raising an eyebrow confusedly.

"Good, then do it. I need your fire breath." Gohan continued, standing next to him and facing Vilgax. Completely lost, Jake just did as he said and transformed as Gohan raised his hands to chest height, his palms facing each other. As a look of deep concentration crossed his face, blue energy came from his hand s in wisps. The wisps thickened after a moment and stabilised before spinning and twirling together to look like the top of a small whirlpool.

"Jake breathe as much fire into the energy as you can." Gohan ordered, the look of concentration deepened on his face as the energy vortex grow bigger and more intense. "Hurry, I don't have much of anything left."

"Ok." Jake said slowly, a concerned look on his face before taking a deep breath and blowing into the energy vortex. Much to his surprise, the flames followed the lines of moving energy, mixing the ki and fire so that it was hard to tell where one ended and another started. In addition, the flames only continued to grow stronger even after he stopped adding more, feeding off of the ki yet the blue energy was increasing too, meaning that Gohan was feeding both.

"Unreal." Was all Jake could say as he stared in awe as the swirling power he helped to create continued to grow. After a few more moments, it ceased growing bigger, but became more condense, indicating that it was still growing stronger.

Light flickering in the corner of his eye as he threw up a shield to block Vilgax's fists, Danny was astounded by what he saw before smirking. Letting his shield fall, he jumped back while simultaneously creating and sending two clones forward, on aiming a kick at Vilgax's gut while the other went for an uppercut meant for his chin, though Vilgax struck and destroyed the first with a fierce kick and backhanded the second into the ground where he too became nothing more than a puff of smoke.

_We have to keep him preoccupied just a little longer._ Danny thought, creating another clone. Taking deep breaths, both Dannys released their ghostly wail.

Astounded beyond words at the sight of visible vocal waves, Vilgax threw up his gauntlet and activated his shield only to be amazed by the intensity of the attack. Grunting loudly, Vilgax had to dig his feet into the ground and hold on with everything he had, despite the shield and gasped as it and the crystal that was creating it developed a shallow crack.

"Unbelievable." Vilgax gasped, staring wide eyed at the crystal as Danny stopped his attack and his clone disappeared as he dropped to his knees. A second later, the white rings appeared around his form and reverted him to his human stated, completely out of power.

"No one has managed to damage this crystal. The kind of power needed to do that, especially through the shield it creates is remarkable. I need to destroy him now."

"Just try it." Diamondhead shouted, his hands turning into blades as he charged. Vilgax was forced to jump back to avoid a cross slash before stepping forward with a strong right hook right into Ben's head. Flying back at the impact, Ben recovered midflight and used to the spikes on his back meeting the earth to flip back onto his feet and thrust his left hand at Vilgax as he followed him, releasing a barrage of crystal spikes at the behemoth. Seeing that it was having very little affect, he thrust his right hand towards Vilgax's feet and sealed them in crystal, causing his own momentum to force him onto his hands and knees and giving Ben the opportunity to seal his hands too.

"You think this will hold me?" Vilgax roared, staring hatefully at Ben.

"No, but it does give me time to do this." Ben responded, tapping the Omnitrix again. This time the flash was absolutely huge and the creature that came from it was even bigger. "Way Big!" as Vilgax stared with a mixture of fear and hatred and the other Guardians stared in awe at the sight of Ben's greatest form for their first time, Ben clenched his fists and swung them straight at Vilgax, one after the other. However, after four hits, a flashing and beeping came from the Omnitrix before a final flash reverted Ben back to his human form, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"What timing for a drained battery! He's not finished yet." Ben puffed, falling to his knees. His eyes narrowed as Vilgax groaned and slowly pulled himself to his feet, battered, bruised and breathing very heavily, but still bearing more than enough strength to kill a group of exhausted teenagers. "I should have turned into Way Big the minute I got here."

"That you should have." Vilgax snarled, grabbing his sword as he approached Ben, bringing the point of the blade to the boy's neck. "Albedo may not have destroyed you, but now, with your power drained, I will get the pleasure myself and I will be able to collect the Omnitrix as my prize. Farewell Ben Tennyson."

"No, farewell Vilgax." Gohan shouted, drawing everyone's attention. Gasps escaped Vilgax and Ben's mouths, the former in fear and the latter in amazement and hope, and smirks from the others as all eyes focused on the completed attack of energy and fire within Gohan's hands. Growling fiercely, Gohan brought his wrists together, his fingers outstretched as he thrust his hands at their enemy one last time. "Ki fire CANNON!"

Ben had just enough time to drop to the ground and roll as the swirling fusion of fire and ki burst forth and consumed Vilgax with intensity far beyond what neither Gohan or Jake should have been able to produce in their weakened conditions and his screams could be heard for miles. Though he had raised his energy shield, the damage to the crystal and the raw power of the blast crashing into it proved to be too much for it to sustain and the crystal shattered, leaving Vilgax completely exposed to the energy infused inferno. The agonised screams continued as the blast blew him back far and fast until he collided with a bus which exploded just as Gohan's attack ended. As the fire and smoke disappeared, it revealed a blackened bus frame with a huge hole at the front and a burnt, twitching and groaning Vilgax, completely incapable of even pulling himself an inch off of the ground.

"What an amazing attack." Danny muttered, more amazed than he'd ever been in his life. Not far away from him, Ben could only nod his head, completely speechless.

"Well, that's it." Gohan muttered, falling to his knees before flopping face first into the ground. "I'm done." He lost consciousness before he'd even finished speaking.

"Was it enough?" Jake asked, focusing his dragon eyes solely on Vilgax. He still didn't show any sign of resuming his attack.

"If it wasn't we're doomed." Rai grunted, pulling himself to his feet and clenching his blade of the nebula tightly in his good hand. He was the only one left with enough power and physical health to fight at all and if Vilgax did still have it in him to stand, Rai would put everything he had into knocking him back down.

"Hehe...you are more...powerful than...I expected." Vilgax choked, his eyes staring intently at the young heroes despite the unbearable pain he was in. "You have...won t-today. But I promise one...day I will be...back."

Having been focusing on his face, none of the boys noticed as Vilgax moved his hand to his wrist and pressed a button until a flash of blue light encased his form and disappeared as quick as it came, taking him with it."

"Teleportation device. He must have an extra ship somewhere in orbit, in case he needed an escape route." Ben muttered as he got to his feet, Danny doing the same, though more sluggishly, at his side. "He always did think of everything."

"Except your return." Rai replied as he cradled his injured hand and let the tears he'd been holding back fall. "I hope Namine can heal this soon."

"She's too busy getting emergency healing herself, along with Gwen." Ben sighed sadly, looking up at the sky as Jake and Rai gasped.

"Albedo was too much for them." Danny informed Rai and Jake, staring down at the ground.

"What about Kim and Roxas." Jake grunted, looking desperate as he stared from one boy to the next. "Are they..."

"Tired and carrying some really painful wounds, but other than that, they're fine." Danny answered, getting two sighs of relief in response.

"So what do we do now?" Rai sobbed uncertainly, turning from one face to another. "Do we wait for a paramedic or-"

"AZMUTH WILL YOU BEAM US UP ALREADY?" Ben screamed at the top of his lungs, scaring all three of his friends. He ignored their startled cries however, and continued to stare up at the sky, looking for a sign.

"Azmuth?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow as he stared at Ben's back. "Who's-"

Before he could finish his sentence, another blue flash occurred in the battlefield, this one taking all five of the Guardians with it as it disappeared.

...

A good two days later, and a lot of time under constant Galvan care for more than one of them, found the Tennysons and every one of the Guardians back the secret spot, where the whole mess had started, and staring with smiles on their faces as the setting sun's light danced on the water and surrounded the trees with a beautiful glow.

"Hard to believe that all of this was almost obliterated a couple of days ago." Ben commented, a warm grin crossing his face.

"Hard to believe I survived the humiliation I endured." Kevin grumbled moodily, ripping up the grass beside him. "Up until this morning, I though the whole waking up naked in front of a bunch of aliens prodding and poking you only happened in the movies."

"Well, what part of our lives isn't sci-fi?" Ben asked, chuckling nervously as Kevin pegged him with a very dark glare.

"The fantasy part. Like magic." Gwen answered, kissing Kevin on the cheek.

'Speaking of which, I think you would get more out of this than me." Roxas said as he pulled his bag onto his lap and pulled out a very specific book. Taking the book, Gwen felt an enormous urge to read and learn every spell within. The book may very well give her all the power that she needed. However, its magic was dangerous and could cause a great deal of destruction. If she pushed too far too fast...

_I think I'll wait until I'm more trained._ She decided, dropping the cover. _I'll just put it away for now._

"So Ben, what was it like seeing your younger self?" Jake asked excitedly, bringing amused grins to Danny, Kim and Roxas' faces.

"Well, to be honest, mini me could be very overbearing." Ben replied, getting chuckles from the other three time travellers and smirks from Kevin and his family. "I was so impatient and self centred."

"He even blew up at himself at one point." Danny laughed as everyone's attention turned to him. "Little Ben went nuts at Kim for the bad guy getting away and big Ben gave him a verbal lashing."

"I remember that." Gwen commented, getting a shocked look from Ben. "But I remember the original way that day went too. I guess it's a magic thing."

"I guess so." Ben shrugged before turning the conversation back to the story. "But even though I saw sides of my old self I didn't like, and believe me when I say that I'm proud of how far I've come as a person from those days, I can still say that there are parts of the old me that make me proud to say that that was me too. Ten year old me was brave, loyal and was willing to sacrifice himself for others."

"So it was a good way to reflect on who you are." Gohan stated more than asked, but getting a nod from Ben anyway.

"It's good to see how far I've come."

"And Gwen too." Kim added, winking at her fellow redhead. "Younger you was ok, if a little snotty, but I'm definitely happy you've grown up so much too."

"Um, thank you?" Gwen replied, not sure as whether to take that as a compliment or an insult.

"We've all come a long way since we started being heroes." Rai stated as the last of the sun's rays disappeared behind the horizon. "Not all of us can take Ben's step back, but even our dear blonds have grown into stronger, smarter people in their time of living."

"That is a fact that will only continue to occur." Namine agreed as she set her sketchbook down, satisfied with her picture of the Guardians all sitting together with warm and brotherly looks upon their faces as they stared at the sunset.

"Only now, we can learn from and develop alongside each other too." Ben added, turning to look at Namine, Rai, Jake, Roxas, Gohan, Gwen, Kim and Danny in turn before giving a nod to his grandfather and Kevin too. "And with each other's help, we will all grow into greater people than any of us ever thought we could possibly be." The others smiled at him and nodded their heads in complete agreement before turning to each other.

Staring at the group, Max couldn't help but swelling with pride, not only because of his grandson's speech, but for each and every one of the kids before him. Kevin had grown into a fine young man and filled Max with much pride too, but the other nine teenage heroes before him were destined for something amazing and Max knew that one day they would unite everyone, heroes and civilians alike. Despite all the issues they had in the past, and some that still existed even in the present, they had grown into fine young men and women. The sky was the limit for this group and Max knew that they would one day reach it.

_Stay strong and rely on each other kids._ He thought, eyeing each one. _I have a feeling that you will one day bring in a new age, one of harmony._

...

Not far away, just beyond Gohan's senses, another man watched the group, all the while fiddling with a pocket watch. Like Max, he was staring at the group wide a great deal of pride, but there was something else there too. On close inspection, one would have recognised it as pity.

"They have grown quite close and strong in a relatively short time. But they have a long way to go and the hardships ahead may be more than many of them are able to bear." Seeing he came to see, he spared them one last worried looked before he closed the pocket watch and disappeared without a trace.

* * *

**And that ends VG3. As usual, I'd like to say thanks to the people that placed this story in their alerts, favourites and especially the poeple who reviewed. For those who haven't checked out my profile and seen the info I placed there on future parts, the VG4 will be in the Dragonball Z category. **

**I also thought I'd mention that there are hints here and there as to what will happen in later stories and I don't mean just the big and obvious ones like paradox. they will occur more commonly from here on in, so keep an eye out for them. Well, I guess that wraps up everything I wanted to say, so see ya at the next story.**


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